MSU settles student lawsuit out of court

In the Oct. 30 complaint filed through the Alliance Defense Fund, Emily Brooker alleged that she was instructed by a social-work professor to write and sign a letter to the Missouri legislature in support of homosexual adoption and, when she refused, was required to face an ethics committee. Brooker graduated from MSU in May with an undergraduate degree in social work.

Under the agreement, Brooker’s official record will be cleared of the ethics committee review. MSU will pay Brooker $9,000, as well as waive academic fees or reimburse her for two years of degree work toward a Master of Social Work at any public institution in the state, estimated to amount to $12,000. Brooker also will receive $3,000 per year for living expenses during those two years of schooling.

“Although our investigation did not support all of the allegations made in the lawsuit, we were concerned about some of the actions that we did learn about,” MSU President Michael T. Nietzel said in a news release.

MSU also will immediately begin recruiting social-work education experts to conduct a review of the school’s social work program.

Meanwhile, MSU Assistant Professor of Social Work Frank G. Kauffman, the instructor named in Brooker’s lawsuit, has voluntarily stepped down from his administrative duties as director of the Master of Social Work program. Kauffman has been reassigned to nonclassroom duties for the remainder of the fall semester, and he will have weekly consultations with MSU Associate Provost Chris Craig indefinitely.

This story originally appeared in SBJ’s Nov. 8 free e-news Daily Update. Click here to register.