Fired SDSU Athletic Chief Is Suing for $2.57 Million

Mary Alice Hill, the San Diego State University athletic director who was fired last year, sued the school Thursday for $2.57 million, charging the university and some employees with wrongful termination, emotional distress and defamation.

Hill, who in 1984 became the first woman athletic director at a major university, was fired in August, 1985, by SDSU President Thomas Day. Defendants in the civil suit in Superior Court are the California State University Board of Trustees; W. Ann Reynolds, chancellor of the California State University system; Day, and SDSU employees Sally Rousch and Marilyn Hatcher.

Hill is seeking $2.5 million in punitive damages, $35,000 for loss of wages and benefits, and $35,000 in general damages. The suit alleges violations of Hill’s civil rights, wrongful discharge, breach of contract, emotional distress, invasion of privacy, defamation, and interference with Hill’s contractual relationship.

According to the suit, Hill was fired after she dismissed three athletic department employees when she allegedly caught them embezzling school funds. This action displeased Day, who told Hill he had lost confidence in her role as athletic director, according to the complaint. Day reinstated the three the next day and renewed a contract with an independent businessman that Hill had severed.

University officials said a subsequent audit of the athletic department did not reveal any evidence of embezzlement or financial mismanagement.

Hill appealed her dismissal in January, claiming that she could not be fired without a series of due-process hearings because she was a civil service employee of the university. Attorneys for the university argued that she served at the pleasure of Day, and Superior Court Judge Mack P. Lovett ruled in favor of the university.

In the complaint filed Thursday, Hill’s attorney repeated the argument that she was a permanent employee, which entitled her to a discharge hearing. Christopher L. Ashcraft, Hill’s attorney, said in the complaint that Hill’s rights were violated when Day failed to provide her with a specific list of the allegations against her, which would have permitted her to confront her accusers and call witnesses on her behalf.

The suit claims that Hill’s personnel file included allegations by Hatcher, an athletic department employee, and a second unidentified woman employee that Hill had sexually harassed them. Hatcher, who is the only person named in the defamation action, also told university officials that Hill had demonstrated “erratic psychological behavior,” the complaint charges.

As a result of the allegations, university officials directed Hill to take a psychiatric examination. The complaint alleges that Rousch, who is the SDSU personnel director, arranged for Hill to take psychiatric and medical tests but that Hill refused.

According to Hill, the controversy surrounding her dismissal cost her a job at Scripps Hospital McDonald Center in La Jolla.