USF faces racial discrimination charges

Posted Jul 29, 2010 by Scott Carter

Updated Jul 29, 2010 at 10:55 PM

The start of football practice is a week away, but on Thursday, an off-the-field story dominated the USF sports headlines as a former academic counselor in the athletic department filed racial discrimination charges against the school. I’ll check back in on the blog later with a couple of other news items from Thursday, but for now, here is a story running in Friday’s edition of The Tampa Tribune:

By SCOTT CARTER
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PALM HARBOR – Former University of South Florida academic counselor Myrtice Landers began her career at USF in 1981 fresh out of the University of Florida, arriving with glowing recommendation letters and recruited heavily by USF based on affirmative action documents in her personnel file.

Less than a year from perhaps retiring and exploring other options – “It was definitely on the table,’’ she said Thursday – the 52-year-old Landers filed a complaint alleging racial discrimination against the school, claiming she is being terminated because of her race and that the athletic department has covered up NCAA violations. Landers is an African-American and since 2004 has worked in USF’s athletic department advising the men’s and women’s basketball and tennis teams.

Landers filed the charge Thursday morning with the Florida Commission on Human Relations and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Flanked by her attorney, Wil Florin, at his law offices here, the visibly nervous Landers said she feels betrayed by the university.

“I would like to have my job back,’’ she said. “I want my full retirement.’’

Landers said she is not interested in returning to a job in the athletic department, but instead hopes to return to work at USF long enough to reach the 30 years required to become fully invested in the school’s pension plan. She is about 10 months shy of reaching that goal.

In the written complaint filed Thursday, Landers acknowledges what Florin termed an “honest mistake’’ when she gave $326 in textbooks to women’s basketball transfer Sasha Bernard in January. Bernard, who must repay the money and sit out the first two games of next season for the secondary NCAA violation, was not yet on scholarship and ineligible to receive the textbooks free after transferring from Indiana.

However, Landers claims that “numerous similarly situated white employees, including her superiors, committed both similar and more egregious NCAA rules violations but were not disciplined’’ during her career at USF.

“I feel as though I have been discriminated against as a result of my race, in violation of the Florida Civil Rights Act,” Landers added in her written claim released Thursday by Florin, who is also representing former USF football coach Jim Leavitt in his lawsuit against the school.

“I also have knowledge of numerous NCAA violations committed by white employees, including my superiors and employees of the compliance division of the athletic department that were unreported, and in some instances, actually covered-up by the Department,’’ she added.

Neither Landers nor Florin would address details about the “numerous” NCAA violations. “We’re not going to talk about that today,” Florin said. “We’ll talk to the NCAA about that.”

USF spokesperson Lara Wade released an official statement from the school on Thursday afternoon, which said USF has received Landers’ complaint and “takes serious its responsibility for the academic progress of all student-athletes and compliance with federal and state law, and NCAA rules. All athletic department employees are required to immediately report any violations. USF conducts timely and rigorous reviews of all alleged violations.’’

USF is expected to release its final personnel report on Landers’ dismissal in the coming days once the Aug. 2 deadline for her to appeal passes. Landers was informed she was being placed on administrative leave July 15 by her immediate supervisor, USF associate athletic director Amy Perkins, after being pulled from a staff meeting and asked to clear out her office.

“They say that she committed an NCAA violation,’’ Florin said. “We’ve alleged that she’s been treated unfairly. Basically, her crime is committing an honest mistake in terms of not retrieving books in a timely fashion from someone. They decided that she is going to be the scapegoat that they offer up to the NCAA to show that they are being tough.’’

Bernard returned the books in May after the spring semester ended.

Former USF basketball star Dominique Jones, who in June became the first USF basketball player ever drafted in the first round of the NBA draft, called The Tampa Tribune recently to voice his displeasure over Landers’ dismissal.

“I can tell you from being there and looking at different situations around me, she has done stopped at least 10 players from flunking off the team,’’ Jones said. “I would have flunked out my freshman year and my sophomore year. I wouldn’t be where I’m at today. She really cared about the kids. That’s the kind of person you need in your program. I just think that’s the worst mistake they could have made from the academic side.’’

While Jones supports his former mentor, Landers has faced multiple reprimands in the past from USF athletic director Doug Woolard and other school officials.

In her personnel file obtained by the Tribune, Woolard wrote a letter to Landers on Sept. 12, 2006, in which he informed Landers that “this will serve as a final warning to you that your inappropriate conduct cannot continue if you wish to remain employed in your position as the Academic Enrichment Center (AEC) in Intercollegiate Athletics (ICA).’’

Woolard’s letter made reference to two prior offenses committed by Landers following an internal investigation conducted by the University Audit and Compliance office, one her “failure to adequately monitor student progress toward graduation,’’ and another instance in which she “misrepresented facts’’ in asking for a student-athlete’s reinstatement after the student had dropped classes.

Landers admitted Thursday to signing the student’s name on the paperwork without telling others to get the student reinstated, but said she put her initials next to the student’s name as a notation.

Woolard’s letter added that Landers’ action gave others in the department a perception that she was trying to “beat the system’’ and that “any future infractions will result in disciplinary actions, up to and including dismissal.’’

On Thursday, Landers said that her past reprimands were primarily a result of a personality clash with her former supervisor, JoAnn Nester, and once Nester left USF that Woolard told her she had a clean state.

Two years later in 2008, Woolard submitted a letter to another university official to increase Landers’ pay 13.1 percent as part of a plan to better align with the Big East Conference pay scale for her position, and in her last review, Landers received a 2 percent cost-of-living salary increase in August 2009, boosting her pay to $39,015 annually, a sharp decline from the $57,503 salary she made before being demoted under Nester as a special projects coordinator in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Her role in that position was eliminated according to a letter dated March 1, 2004, and signed by Holly J. Schoenherr, assistant director of academic support services at the time. In the letter, Landers was told her position was being eliminated “based on the determination that a different approach is needed to redirect departmental efforts in effecting changes in our institutional culture,’’ a decision that ultimately landed her in the athletic department.