Professor Denies Offering A’s for Raffle-Ticket Sales

A former Cal State Northridge professor who is appealing his dismissal by the university denied Tuesday that he offered students A grades in exchange for selling raffle tickets to benefit a foundation that he ran.

Eleazu S. Obinna testified at a state Personnel Board hearing at the university that he encouraged students to sell raffle tickets during the spring semester, but “I did not discuss sales for a grade.”

Obinna was fired for allegedly offering his students A grades for selling $100 worth of raffle tickets on behalf of the United Crusade Foundation, which Obinna founded in 1982. He will continue to draw his salary until his appeal is concluded.

Obinna, a 17-year tenured professor in the Pan-African studies department, testified that the allegations might have come from a female student who was distraught about her breakup with Obinna’s son.

Obinna added that he had angered the former school administrator who initiated the investigation by criticizing him a year earlier in letters to CSUN President James Cleary and California State University Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds.

Obinna, who holds a doctoral degree from UCLA, said that the 82 students enrolled in his upper-division field studies course were required to attend field trips, perform 45 hours of community service and write a term paper.

Earlier, four students had testified that they were told that the only work required in the course was to sell raffle tickets.

Obinna said the university failed to follow its own guidelines by announcing in a press release last April that he was being fired for his part in the alleged grade-selling scheme. Obinna said he first learned of his pending dismissal from television and newspaper reports.

Former instructor Willie Bellamy was also fired for allegedly telling his students that they could earn A grades by selling raffle tickets. The raffle was subsequently canceled and the money has been held in trust pending its return to ticket buyers, Obinna said.

The raffle money was to have been used to create a community center in Pacoima to assist black residents, Obinna said.

The hearing before Administrative Law Judge Byron Berry is expected to conclude today. No decision is expected for at least two months, Berry said.