Louisiana State University has reached a settlement with another former instructor, who claimed that the university retaliated against her after she blew the whistle, on what she suspected was academic fraud involving student athletes.
Tiffany Terrell Mayne will receive $112,500, according to a report in the school newspaper. In a terse, three-sentence statement, LSU Vice Chancellor Michael Ruffner said the university “continues to deny any wrongdoing relative to Mayne’s former employment at LSU or otherwise.”
The litigation surfaced in 2002 when Mayne and Carline Owen, another instructor, filed two separate discrimination lawsuits that highlighted allegations of plagiarism, inappropriate help from tutors and instructors being pressured to ignore improprieties. Owen settled last year for $150,000. Mayne’s suit charged specifically that she gave failing grades to 10 football players in a fall 2000 kinesiology introductory course. She claimed she was then pressure to offer the players extra credit through a special post-semester study session designed to raise their grades and keep them eligible for the Peach Bowl in Atlanta.
Both Owen and Mayne were represented by Baton Rouge attorney Jill Craft.
