UVa Dean Retires After Admitting a Lie to Prosecutors; SUNY-Fredonia Denies Promotion to Faculty Member Who Criticized a Rule; Southern Vermont Hires a President

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By XIAO-BO YUAN

SUDDEN GOODBYE: The longtime dean of the University of Virginia's Office of African-American Affairs, M. Rick Turner, has announced his retirement from the university, days after he signed an agreement with federal prosecutors admitting that he had lied about knowledge of a known drug dealer.

Mr. Turner, 65, entered into the bargain to avoid prosecution, under which he would have faced up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine. Instead, he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, accepting 12 months of probation and agreeing to testify in any court proceedings. The nature of Mr. Turner's relationship with the drug dealer remains mysterious, with prosecutors in the case remaining tight-lipped about his involvement.

The university placed Mr. Turner on academic leave and began an internal investigation after officials learned on July 14 that Mr. Turner "knowingly and willfully made a false material representation" of his knowledge of a drug dealer, according to a written statement from the university announcing his leave. The university closed its investigation upon his retirement, says Carolyn S. Wood, a university spokeswoman.

Sylvia V. Terry, associate dean of the office, will take over Mr. Turner's responsibilities until the university appoints an interim dean. The university will then search for a permanent replacement.

Mr. Turner had been dean of the office since 1988 and was celebrated for having increased diversity at the university. He drew criticism as well for being "more divisive than productive in matters of race relations," according to a profile of him in the student newspaper.

He now plans to devote his time to completing a book, according to a written statement from the university. Neither he nor his lawyer, John E. Davidson, responded to interview requests.

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PRIOR RESTRAINT?: The State University of New York at Fredonia is drawing criticism for denying a promotion to a tenured faculty member after he publicly criticized several university policies in the local news media.

The university's president, Dennis L. Hefner, said in a letter to Stephen Kershnar, an associate professor of philosophy, that he would not be promoted to full professor because he had made "deliberate and repeated public misrepresentations of campus policies and procedures."

Tensions between the professor and the president flared this past spring, when Mr. Kershnar was quoted in a Buffalo News article as criticizing a university rule that punishes students who fail to report violations of the student-conduct code. Earlier, Mr. Kershnar had written in his biweekly column for the Observer, a daily newspaper in Dunkirk, N.Y., that the university was lowering standards to accept more minority students.

Christine D. Mantai, a spokeswoman for the university, says that Mr. Hefner rejected Mr. Kershnar for promotion because the professor had "failed to meet standards in the area of service to the community," although the president had rated him highly in teaching and scholarship.

After his promotion was initially denied, Mr. Kershnar says he made an offer to Mr. Hefner that "would allow both of us to walk away with what we wanted." Under the proposal, for one year, Mr. Kershnar would submit any of his public writings to a two-member committee for approval before publication.

Mr. Hefner countered with a more stringent contract that required the professor to do that indefinitely.

Angered by the new contract, Mr. Kershnar rejected the proposal and took his complaint to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an advocacy group for free speech. The foundation wrote a letter to Mr. Hefner criticizing him for a "wildly unconstitutional and morally reprehensible" attack on Mr. Kershnar's rights.

Both Mr. Kershnar and Mr. Hefner say they now regret suggesting such a committee. Mr. Kershnar has not sued the university, and he refused to comment on whether he plans to do so. Timothy R. Allan, president of the Fredonia chapter of the United University Professions union, says that it is "actively looking" into Mr. Kershnar's case.

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MOVING UP: Karen Gross, a professor at New York Law School for the past two decades, has been named the next president of Southern Vermont College, a private liberal-arts college in Bennington. She will continue to teach at the law school occasionally.

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