State Says CSUN Must Reinstate Fired Professor

A state board has ordered the reinstatement of a longtime Cal State Northridge professor who was fired last summer for allegedly offering students “A” grades in exchange for selling raffle tickets to raise money for his nonprofit foundation.

The State Personnel Board, in a closed session Tuesday, voted to suspend Eleazu S. Obinna for 90 days and then ordered CSUN to give him back his job in the Pan-African studies department, said Walter Vaughn, the board’s assistant executive officer.

The board upheld the recommendation of Administrative Law Judge Byron Berry who, in a written opinion, said that there was not enough evidence to support university allegations that during the spring, 1988, semester, Obinna offered his students A’s for selling $100 worth of raffle tickets to benefit the United Crusade Foundation.

Hearings on Campus

Berry wrote the opinion after listening to seven days of testimony during appeal hearings held on the CSUN campus in November, 1988, and February.

Berry said Wednesday that he recommended that Obinna--a tenured, 17-year CSUN professor--be suspended for unprofessional conduct for “selling tickets in connection with a class.”

“It is not an appropriate class activity,” Berry said.

Obinna, 54, could not be reached for comment on the decision. University officials declined to comment because the incident is a confidential personnel matter, spokeswoman Ann Salisbury said.

The board, at Berry’s recommendation, also dismissed allegations that Obinna lied to superiors about class requirements for the upper-division course, Field Work in the African-American Community, to cover up the alleged grade-selling scheme.

Four CSUN students testified in November that they were told by Obinna and former part-time CSUN instructor Willie J. Bellamy that the only work required for the three-unit course was the sale of 20 $5 raffle tickets. The students said they were told they did not have to attend class or complete any other assignments.

Denied Allegations

Bellamy, who was fired but did not appeal, denied telling students that they would receive A’s for selling the tickets. He is now a religious studies student at the school.

Obinna testified in February that he never discussed “sales for a grade.” He said students were asked if they would volunteer to sell tickets. To earn their grade, students were required to go on field trips, perform community service and write a term paper, he said.

In addition to Obinna’s testimony, four of the 83 students enrolled in his class testified that they never were offered grades in exchange for selling raffle tickets.

Obinna’s attorney, Francis E. Smith, said in closing arguments that even if some students had concluded that they could earn a grade by selling the tickets, “the discipline sought is nevertheless unreasonable.”

Colleagues of Obinna had testified that they believed the Nigerian-born Obinna was fired because of his blunt and often outspoken criticism of university officials and policies in the past.

‘Slight Error’

Smith on Wednesday said that the board’s decision indicated “that at most there was a slight error in judgment” for encouraging the sale of the tickets by his students. The university prohibits the sale of raffle tickets by outside organizations.

The raffle money was to have been used by the foundation to create a community center in Pacoima to assist black residents, Obinna said at the February hearing. The raffle, which offered a donated sports car as the prize, was subsequently canceled and the money has been held in trust pending its return to ticket buyers, he said.

The state attorney general’s office sent an auditor to hear testimony in the Obinna hearing but Deputy Atty. Gen. James Cordi said Wednesday that his office is no longer actively investigating Obinna’s foundation. “The issue was the returning of the money, and most of the money paid by people has been returned,” Cordi said.

Students began complaining to university officials about the ticket-selling in April, 1988, according to university memorandums filed in the case. The university on April 28, 1988, announced the cancellation of Obinna’s classes in connection with an alleged grade-selling scheme.

After a campus investigation, CSUN President James Cleary on May 23, 1988, sent a letter to Obinna telling the professor that he was being fired for “unprofessional conduct and dishonesty” for the alleged grade-selling scheme and then for denying it later when asked by his superiors.

Obinna denied the charges and appealed the firing. He continued to draw his salary throughout the appeal hearings, university officials said.