Barrows lawsuit dismissed

The Paul Barrows saga may have dragged into the spring semester, but half of the dark shadow the former vice chancellor left hanging over the University of Wisconsin is now gone.

A federal district judge has dismissed Mr. Barrows' lawsuit against Chancellor John Wiley, leaving only a pending plea before an academic staff appeals committee to pester the UW campus. And while details of that appeal remain vague, it too will hopefully be heard – and dismissed – in the near future.

As The Badger Herald is reporting:

[A]ccording to U.S. District Judge John Shabaz, Barrows failed to show that placement in a backup position with no separation in service was entitled under state law.

Moreover, Shabaz wrote that Barrows additionally would had to have shown that he suffered some economic harm — an argument Shabaz labeled as “pure speculation.”

Unless they suffer economic harm, he said, public employees who continue in employment are not deprived of due process. And in Barrows’ case, Shabaz said he did not show he had any protected property interest if he were placed in his backup position.

While Mr. Barrows' suit against Luoluo Hong does still stand – having been remanded to Dane County Circuit Court by Mr. Shabaz – the reality is that Ms. Hong is now ensconced in the world of Arizona State University, having left little more than a bitter legacy in Madison. This is not a suit that will not much concern the UW community and, thus, only the institutional appeal remains at issue.

Then again, for all the trauma this campus was made to suffer over the summer and autumn of 2005, some of the wounds inflicted by Mr. Barrows and company may take a while to heal.