Tuesday, March 26, 2002

Nebraska Justices Permit Student's Lawsuit Over Online Essays to Go Forward By ANDREA L. FOSTER The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday that a former student at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln can proceed with a lawsuit that accuses the university of negligence after a former professor posted essays of hers on the Internet without her consent. The ruling reversed a lower-court decision that dismissed the long-running case on grounds that the former student had filed her suit after the end of the two-year window Nebraska allows for negligence suits. The student, Rania K. Shlien, maintains that the posted essays -- "Anacoluthon" and "Being There for You" -- contain intimate details of her private life, according to court documents. Her suit, filed in September 1998, named as defendants the university and the English professor who posted the material, David J. Hibler. The university fired Mr. Hibler in July 1998 for "unprofessional conduct, sexual harassment, and an inability to comply with departmental and university polices," according to an official with the university Board of Regents. Mr. Hibler also was accused of sexually harassing a student and sending e-mail messages that contained racial slurs to a university mailing list. Ms. Shlien's lawsuit accuses the university of failing to supervise Mr. Hibler and of failing to institute safeguards that would prevent unauthorized publication of student material. The essays were written in 1991. Mr. Hibler posted them to a university-run Web site in 1995. But Ms. Shlien says she didn't know they were online until June 1997, when her parents spotted them on the Web. She filed a complaint with State Claims Board in February 1998. A state district-court judge agreed with the university in May 1999, ruling that since the essays had been uploaded to the Web in 1995 and Ms. Shlien's complaint wasn't filed until 1998, she had exceeded the two-year statute of limitations on filing claims. Ms. Shlien argued that the two-year window began in 1997, on the day she saw the material. The Nebraska Supreme Court said that since questions remain about when the essays were uploaded and about when "Ms. Shlien should have discovered her injury," the lower court erred in assuming that Ms. Shlien's complaint exceeded the statute of limitations. The justices sent the case back to the district court for a hearing or trial of Ms. Shlien's negligence charge. Ms. Shlien could not be reached Monday. Her lawyer, Vincent M. Powers, declined to comment. Richard R. Wood, vice president and general counsel for the University of Nebraska system, said he was disappointed in the Supreme Court's decision. "We'll have to go back and try the case on the merits," he said. "There's a substantial issue whether the plaintiff suffered any damages at all." Background articles from The Chronicle: U. of Nebraska Professor Accused of Sexual Harassment Is Fired (9/25/1998) U. of Nebraska Suspends a Controversial Professor Who Faces 2 Lawsuits (3/6/1998) Former U. of Nebraska Student Sues Over Posting of Personal Essay (2/20/1998) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

Pay for college administrators rises by 4.7%, beating inflation rate Ohio State U.'s president accepts chancellorship of Maryland system Duke, Ohio Wesleyan adopt policies discouraging student-professor relationships 2 U. of Oxford professors resign in wake of admissions sting Princeton professor wins Stockholm Water Prize Nebraska justices permit student's lawsuit over online essays to go forward Muslim student group in Colorado removes Web link that led to Hamas charter Teaching children with behavior problems is the topic of an online course from Lesley College