After three years of back and forth talk about sexual harassment, due process and court motions, the case is finally closed. Well, almost.

John Soloski, a journalism professor and former dean of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has reached an agreement with University President Michael Adams and the University to settle a lawsuit that started in 2006 after he was accused of harassing a co-worker.

The U.S. District Court in Atlanta said Nov. 5 that the case was “dismissed with prejudice,” meaning the case is closed unless either party reopens it in 60 days, according to court documents.

“Everybody was surprised when it was closed,” Steve Shewmaker, director of University Legal Affairs, said Wednesday in an interview with The Red & Black. “The agreement is in negotiation, but it still needs to be signed and submitted to the court. The terms have been negotiated, but I can’t disclose those at this point.”

Shewmaker said he thinks the agreement will be signed in the next month so “it will be filed and incorporated into the records before the 60-day mark.” He wouldn’t indicate whether Soloski asked for an apology from the University as part of the agreement.

Soloski declined to comment before the 60-day period passes, and his lawyer Brandon Hornsby could not be reached Tuesday or Wednesday for comment.

The Timeline

In June 2005, Janet Jones Kendall, former director of alumni relations for Grady College, filed a sexual harassment complaint against Soloski. At the University’s Capital Campaign kickoff in Atlanta on April 14, Soloski said her “dress showed off her assets” and asked if she attended the event alone.

The Office of Legal Affairs opened an investigation and spoke with Kendall and others in Grady College.

On June 29, Soloski was reprimanded and ordered to attend a training after the investigation found he violated the Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policy.

Though Soloski denied he was guilty and said he would appeal the decision, the Office of Legal Affairs document said Soloski’s “admission to making inappropriate comments about the complainant’s clothing which could have been perceived as being sexual in nature” was used to determine the violation.

The next day, Soloski resigned from the dean’s position and, under an exit agreement made in 2001 when he was hired, kept his dean’s salary of $196,000 for one year while “re-tooling to move into a teaching and research mode.”

His salary would then be renegotiated and not be “less than the highest paid full professor within Grady College” – about $190,000 at the time.

On July 1, Leonard Reid, an advertising professor at Grady College since 1980, was named interim dean. Reid also served as interim dean before Soloski was hired.

On July 13, Soloski filed an appeal with University President Michael Adams, protesting the more than 200 pages of documents released from the University’s investigation. The documents reported several incidents that created a “tense and hostile atmosphere” in the workplace.

In the appeal, Soloski said he was not given an opportunity to directly address the allegations, and Adams had a conflict of interest in addressing a decision made by direct subordinates.

A week later, Adams denied the appeal and said Soloski “had been afforded all the rights of due process.”

Another week later, Soloski filed an appeal with the Board of Regents.

By Sept. 7, the Board of Regents denied Soloski’s request for a hearing with a neutral party. The only other option Soloski could pursue was a lawsuit – one that finally led to the three-year battle. Already up to $13,000 in legal fees, Soloski hesitated.

But on June 27, 2006, he decided to file a lawsuit against Adams, the Board of Regents and the state for $1 million in damages for breach of contract and “severe emotional distress, its physical manifestations and the resulting harm done to his reputation and career.”

He continued to seek an impartial hearing and the $190,000 salary. Of the 12 counts he filed, nine were denied by the court and two were allowed to go to trial.

Almost a month later, Soloski claimed he didn’t receive equitable treatment in the investigation, contrasting it to that of Keith Parker, former associate provost of diversity. While on University business in Washington, D.C., Parker invited a University graduate student to stay in his hotel room and said she looked like the “kind of girl who liked to have fun.”

Parker, who was accused of harassment two previous times, was not found in violation of the harassment policy.

In August – a year of research leave later – Soloski returned to teach the Introduction to Print Media undergraduate class and a Journalism Topics graduate course.

It was his first time teaching at the University.

More than two years later, on Nov. 28, 2008, a U.S. District Court recommended the University clear Soloski of charges. The investigation was “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable,” according to court documents.

The University was ordered to clear his name on the public record or contest within 10 days. Both parties asked for an extension, and the University finally objected to the recommendations a few days before Christmas.

“A contrary holding by the Magistrate Judge frustrates the very purpose of the policy on the UGA campus and EEOC guidance regarding the discharge of employer’s duty of preventive care, and constrains Defendant from implementing sufficient disciplinary measures to prevent harassment before it happens,” according to documents by Adams’ attorney.

In February of this year, the court ordered Kelly Simmons, a former Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter who is now employed by the University, to reveal the identities of sources she used in a June 2005 story about the investigation.

Months later, shield laws protected her from revealing sources.

Despite inching along with each court motion, March brought a change. A district court judge ordered the University to clear Soloski’s name.

The court approved a recommendation to “grant [John Soloski's] request … for rescinding [the University's] findings and expunging from [the University's] records any indication that [Soloski] violated the University’s sexual harassment policy.”

But the court cleared the University in some areas – it did not breach Soloski’s contract as dean since he chose to resign, it did not deny Soloski his right to due process and Adams did not violate Soloski’s right to due process by rejecting an appeal.

By May, Soloski filed a motion for contempt and demanded action.

He said the University continually failed to revoke the findings. He wanted a formal letter from the Board of Regents admitting UGA’s admission of error, destruction of all copies of sexual harassment findings against him at UGA, payment of attorney’s fees and the purchase of an advertisement in “the first 3 pages of A) the Athens Banner-Herald, B) the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, C) the Iowa City Press-Citizen, D) the Des Moines Register, E) the Daily Iowan and F) the Athens Red & Black.”

A judge denied the motion but ordered the case to mediation.

In September, another judge ordered the University to erase all documents relating to claims filed in 2005. Soloski and the University are now signing a final agreement.