Three years after university trustees dismissed tenured engineering professor Louis Wozniak, the controversy remains alive and kicking but in a different forum — the federal court in Urbana.

Dismissed on Nov. 13, 2013, after nearly 50 years on the faculty, Wozniak challenged the decision in a 2015 federal lawsuit alleging that University of Illinois trustees and various officials violated his civil rights.

UI lawyers moved to dismiss the case, but U.S. Judge Colin Bruce recently kept the lawsuit alive by denying most of the university’s dismissal motion. Bruce did, however, agree to dismiss trustees as defendants.

Filed by Champaign lawyer Michael Tague, Woziak’s lawsuit alleges UI officials improperly orchestrated his firing from his tenured engineering associate professorship by violating his constitutional rights to free speech and due process of law as well as running afoul of the state’s whistle-blower statute.

In denying the motion to dismiss, Bruce concluded that Wozniak’s allegations, if accurate, are sufficient to meet the legal requirement necessary to proceed into the heart of the dispute.

A motion to dismiss, he reminded, tests the “sufficiency of the complaint” and is not a decision on the “merits” of the case.

Nonetheless, Bruce’s decision is significant because it keeps the dispute alive, a move that will cost taxpayers a considerable sum to continue to litigate.

Rather than expose itself to higher legal costs, the UI settled a similar civil rights lawsuit in 2015 for $875,000 after a Chicago federal judge denied the UI’s motion to dismiss the claim made by would-be UI professor Steve Salaita.

Given Wozniak’s history of repeated confrontations with UI officials, it appears unlikely, at least on the surface, that the near-octogenarian will be interested in a settlement.

Indeed, he’s seeking reinstatement to the faculty, reassignment of his teaching duties, double back pay plus interest, fringe benefits and seniority rights and payment of his legal fees.

“These charges, or at least a portion of the charges, relate to a possible violation of a law, rule or regulation. Specifically, the allegation that frivolous charges were brought against (Wozniak) and the allegation relating to the proceedings leading up to (Wozniak’s) punishment could relate to a possible violation of administrative rules and the law as it relates to due process,” said Bruce, who wrote that Wozniak met the “light burden” of stating a “plausible” legal claim.

The genesis of the dispute that led to Wozniak’s dismissal dates to a 2009 controversy over a teaching award given by engineering students. Wozniak suspected engineering department officials intervened in the award process, denying him the award and arranging for it to be given to another faculty member who received fewer votes.

Seeking to investigate what occurred, Wozniak alleged that UI officials sought to block his inquiry by claiming the award was not a UI function, but a student organization function. Wozniak later challenged the award process in local court.

The dispute, however, mushroomed into a full-blown controversy in which he continued to speak publicly about the dispute, created a website devoted to UI ethical issues and produced a YouTube video. That resulted in UI officials alleging that Wozniak violated rules related to UI student privacy and warning that he faced severe discipline if he did not drop the matter.

It’s the kind of management/labor dispute unheard of in the private sector, where supervisors are able to direct the conduct of employees. Inside the hermetically sealed world of university faculty, however, tenure often provides faculty a shield the admonitions of higher-ups.

That was almost the case in the Wozniak matter. A UI faculty committee looked into the charges against him and found they were insufficient to justify Wozniak’s termination. But their defense of Wozniak was revelatory in that it revealed how and why so many UI officials wanted him out.

“Being a self-righteous, obsessed and insensitive person is not a cause to dismiss,” the faculty committee wrote in a semi-defense of the prickly professor.

Despite the faculty committee’s conclusion, UI officials continued to pursue dismissal and, according to Wozniak’s complaint, they also continued to bring new charges against him that he was not permitted to rebut. Ultimately, trustees acceded to the requests of top officials to fire a tenured professor, something that had not occurred for 50 years.

Included among the defendants in the lawsuit are former UI presidents Michael Hogan and Robert Easter; former Chancellors Phyllis Wise and Barbara Wilson; former engineering dean Ilesanmi Adesida; UI lawyer Laura Clower; and Matthew Finkin and Eric Johnson, chairmen of the UI’s Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

In addition to ruling on the motion to dismiss, Judge Bruce also referred the case to U.S. Magistrate Judge Eric Long “for further proceedings.”

Jim Dey, a member of The News-Gazette staff, can be reached by email at [email protected] or at 217-351-5369.