Chaired Professor Resigns From Kansas Law Faculty After Withholding Student Grades In Overload Pay Dispute

Statement by Suzanne Valdez: Departure from KU Faculty Position:

Yesterday, January 28, 2021, I resigned from the University of Kansas as a full-time faculty member. I will no longer be a Full Clinical Professor of Law and the Connell Teaching Chair at the KU School of Law. I have greatly valued teaching, advising, and mentoring a generation of KU Law students for the past 21 years. While at KU, I taught upper level practical skills courses, and I developed the nationally recognized Deposition Skills Workshop. I taught legal and prosecutorial ethics, and I co-authored a law school textbook titled, “Prosecutorial Ethics.” In addition to my teaching and scholarship, I served the university community in many ways, including as University Faculty Senate President, where I advocated for fair and equitable treatment of faculty, staff, and students. For faculty and staff, I spoke out on issues related to racial injustice and gender inequity. For students, I voiced the importance of addressing campus sexual assault in a trauma-informed manner.

Kansas City Star, Following Pay Dispute, Douglas County District Attorney Resigns From KU Law School:

Douglas County District Attorney, Suzanne Valdez announced Friday that she has resigned from her teaching job at the University of Kansas law school.

The decision comes several weeks after the university placed Valdez on administrative leave and threatened to fire her over her actions in a pay dispute.

Valdez had withheld grades from her students in a class, she said, because the course exceeded her contractual obligations and law school officials decided she was not owed overload pay. That was because she would not be finishing the academic year when she became District Attorney, officials said.

It is unfortunate that KU refuses to make positive changes on these very important university and community issues. On behalf of the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office, I hope the KU administration will put its people first, and will collaborate with my office and other community partners on the goal of creating a safe and healthy environment for Douglas County.

Valdez had planned to take a semester off and return to teach one or two classes a semester.

Valdez said the same issues related to racial and gender equity that caused her to run for District Attorney led her to leave the University.

Kansas City Star, KU Threatens to Fire New Douglas County DA, She Claims Retaliation and Discrimination:

Four days before she was set to be sworn in as the new Douglas County District Attorney, the University of Kansas placed Suzanne Valdez on administrative leave Thursday with the possibility of dismissal for her conduct in a pay dispute with the law school.

Valdez, who has taught at the university since 1999, has been outspokenly critical of KU for its handling of sexual assault complaints, especially as it relates to a former student criminally charged and investigated for falsely reporting rape. Those charges were later dropped.

Valdez, who is Latina, calls KU’s actions “pure and simple retaliation” and discrimination.

According to an email provided to The Star, KU Vice President for Faculty Development, Chris Brown, ... “Given this behavior, I cannot be assured that you will assign grades objectively, since your behavior evidences an inability to keep disputes with your employer separate from how it is you treat students,” Brown wrote.

By Thursday, Valdez said, she had withheld grades for 24 hours but already determined what each student’s final grade would be. She said she had done this because the course exceeded her contractual requirements and [Dean] Mazza had told her she was not owed the $7,500 in overload pay because she had taken a new job as District Attorney and would not be finishing the academic year. ...

According to records provided to The Star, Valdez reached a settlement with the university over allegations of pay discrimination in May 2019. The settlement includes a non-disparagement clause barring Valdez from speaking or publishing negative comments about Mazza and the university.