Professor Sues Stillman College Over Dismissal for ‘Malicious Gossip’

A professor whose dismissal from Stillman College led the American Association of University Professors to censure the historically black institution last year has sued his former employer over his termination, The Tuscaloosa News, an Alabama newspaper, reported. Ekow Hayford, who was a tenured assistant professor of business at Stillman, is seeking back pay, punitive damages, and his old job back, the paper said. Mr. Hayford, who now teaches at Talladega College, said Stillman fired him in 2008 in retaliation for being a vocal critic of the institution’s president, Ernest McNealey. The college said he had been dismissed for violating its ban on “malicious gossip and verbal abuse.”