Orange : Chaplain Sues School Over Cut in Hours

A chaplain at Chapman University accuses the college in a sex discrimination lawsuit of reducing her job from full time to part time because she reported that two students had been sexually harassed by male faculty members.

The Rev. Shaunie Eminger Schmoll, who has worked full time at Chapman for the past three years, charges in a suit filed Monday in Orange County Superior Court that the university reduced her hours and benefits because of her actions on the students’ behalf.

University officials said Wednesday that Schmoll’s schedule reduction was part of a $500,000 budget cut last year.

“She was one of about a dozen other individuals who were affected by the budget cut,” Chapman spokeswoman Ruth Wardwell said. In a letter to Schmoll last April, E.B. Buster, a university trustee wrote: “The decision to reduce your position to half time was reached by your departmental administration believing that you could still perform an acceptable job despite the reduction in hours.”

The suit charges that the administration was retaliating against Schmoll for informing officials that two students had complained that two male professors had tried to fondle them and had created a hostile environment.

Chapman’s provost and vice president Harry Hamilton said in a written statement that the university last year did investigate the students’ claims of “name calling and demeaning comments,” but that there were no allegations of fondling.

“At the time, I explained to Rev. Schmoll that the only way we could take legal action against those involved was if the students allowed their names to be used in making formal allegations,” Hamilton continued. “The students never gave that permission.”