The plight of an asthmatic physics professor at University of Maine’s Orono campus has garnered attention from the higher education community.
Peter Kleban has been a professor for 10 years and co-founded the Maine Laboratory for Surface Science Technology. The university denied his request for shorter hours.
Kleban says his asthma never interfered with his teaching until the university increased his weekly classroom hours from five to eight in 1999.
Claiming the new schedule caused a “dramatic worsening” of his asthma, Kleban filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission. The commission upheld Kleban’s complaint in a unanimous vote.
Maine has 90 days to settle the dispute with Kleban, after which, if they do not settle, Kleban can sue on the grounds of discrimination.
According to the National Asthma Campaign, asthma is a condition that affects the airways or the small tubes that carry air in and out of the lungs. People with asthma have airways that are almost always red and sensitive. These airways can react badly when an asthmatic person has a cold or other viral infection, or comes into contact with an asthma trigger.
A trigger is anything that irritates the airways and causes the symptoms of asthma to appear. Common triggers include cigarette smoke, exercise, and allergies to things such as pollen, furry or feathery animals, or house-dust mites.
In Kleban’s case, the trigger just might be an increased workload.
The case focuses on two major questions; whether or not the university discriminated against Professor Kleban, and whether asthma qualifies as a disability.
“Any physical impairment could be a disability,” said Trey Duffy, director of the McBurney Disability Research Center at UW. “In most cases, asthma is not.”
Some federal agencies, including the U.S. military, classify asthma as a disability and in some cases grant disability benefits upon discharge.
An investigator for the Human Rights Commission asserted that Kleban does qualify as disabled under the Maine Human Rights Act.
The university contends that Kleban would not qualify as disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“We have a bona fide bone of contention with their interpretation [of the Maine Human Rights Act],” the university’s lawyer, J. Kelley Wiltbank, told The Chronicle for Higher Education.
Whatever the outcome, the dispute has cast a shadow over the University of Maine and its administration.
Both sides say they would prefer the case not go to court, but it appears as if the university will not budge.
Kleban maintains he requested only “reasonable accommodations” and is confident of his chances in court.
“In court, the window for disabled [people] is becoming smaller and smaller,” Duffy said. “Ninety-five percent of cases are won by the employer.”
