NEWS
UW moves to fire Cohen following his return
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Carolyn Smith:
- Senate committee scrutinizes UW (October 20, 2005)
- Duo unveils universal healthcare proposal (October 21, 2005)
- In-Depth: WiCell unveils stem cell breakthrough (January 15, 2006)
Related Stories:
- Sex offender returned to UW office Aug. 22 (September 16, 2005)
- More trouble for Cohen (April 27, 2006)
- Spear: UW does not perform background checks (September 20, 2005)
- Regents dismiss felonious faculty (April 10, 2006)
- UW releases report on convicted felons (September 9, 2005)
Share This:
by Carolyn Smith
Monday, September 19, 2005
After heavy criticism, University of Wisconsin Provost Peter Spear decided Thursday to recommend the UW System Board of Regents terminate the employment of two professors convicted of felonies. One of them, Lewis Keith Cohen, was released Sunday from the correctional facility where he served his 30-day sentence.
Steven Clark, the other professor, who began his one-year prison sentence June 23 for stalking, and Cohen, who was convicted of child enticement, are still both considered UW employees pending the regents' ruling on their firing.
"The investigation is now completed and on the basis of that, I have decided to recommend that he be fired," Spear said Thursday of Cohen. "And because we've now reached that decision and we know that we don't want him as a member of the faculty, it is appropriate to tell him that we don't want him back on campus."
Cohen was arrested by Greendale police last spring when authorities caught him attempting to meet with a 14-year-old boy, who was actually an undercover police officer, at a Subway restaurant. Cohen had been sending pornographic images via the Internet and had planned to be a mentor for the boy on "sexual matters."
When contacted at his home late Sunday night, Cohen said, "I'm sorry, but I have no comment."
Controversy arose last week when Cohen's return to the campus surfaced. Cohen reported back to his Van Hise office on Aug. 22 at the request of Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters and Science, according to Mary Layoun, the chair of the comparative literature department. Cohen continued to work in his office until late Thursday, when Spear said Cohen would be barred from returning to campus and placed on paid administrative leave.
"Part of his sentence was that he had to spend time in jail," Spear said. "And the correctional system granted him work release, so while he was in jail, he would commute into campus and work on work release."
Spear added Cohen had to abide by restrictions set forth by the state Department of Corrections (DOC), such as having no contact with persons under the age of 18, and having no access to computers or the Internet.
Before Sept. 15, UW had not yet made the decision to fire Cohen because the university was still looking into whether Cohen's actions warranted removing him from his appointment.
"We had not yet finished our internal investigation, so we did not have any determination about whether his actions were such that he would be dismissed from the university," Spear said.
Due to the Wisconsin DOC deciding to give Cohen work release, Spear said, UW was left to choose between putting Cohen on paid administrative leave or allow him to work and pay him.
"Given that we had to pay him anyway under the law, we thought it would be best to have him doing some useful work for the university while we finished the investigation," Spear said.
Putting Cohen on unpaid leave was not an option, he added.
"We could not put him on leave without pay because that would be depriving him of property — his salary," Spear said. "You can't do that until he's gone through the complete investigation process, findings and appeals, and that's required by state law."
However, state Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, said the university should have settled the matter of firing the felons sooner.
"The UW could have avoided this controversy and this problem by starting their own investigation much, much earlier," Suder said. "And for their attorneys to now make excuses by claiming some state law requires them to pay this man is absolute rubbish."
In addition, Suder criticized UW's legal council and the decision to follow due process.
"I'm not sure where the UW is getting their attorneys," Suder said. "I suspect that perhaps that the monkeys from the research labs have taken over the legal department at the UW."
Clark and convicted child molester Roberto Coronado, a professor of physiology, have both been placed on unpaid administrative leave; Coronado has decided to appeal his firing.
Spear said though UW would have liked to fire the professors in question earlier, they were prohibited by state law from doing so.
"I think it's really important to follow state law and federal laws on due process," Spear said. "And that's what we've done."
UW student Michael Johnson, a junior, had Cohen as a professor in 2003 when Cohen was the chair of the department of comparative literature, which he held since 2000.
Johnson said Cohen's teaching style was similar to that of other professors, but noted he was eccentric and conceited.
"He was weird, but I never felt threatened by him," Johnson said. "If he was any creepier, people would have been like, 'it's only a matter of time before this guy gets arrested.'"
In 1998, Cohen was charged with six counts of violating a restraining order that his estranged wife had filed against him but the charges were later dismissed. Cohen and his then wife were embroiled in a divorce that left her, "fearful for her safety due to the conduct of [Cohen]," due to his "unpredictable behavior and his recent and past attempts to invade [her] privacy by entering her home without consent or notice" according to an affidavit signed by his ex-wife at the time.
