A former administrator at Paul Quinn College has filed a $5- million lawsuit that accuses the president of sexually harassing her and then firing her for not submitting to his advances.
Marilyn Marshall, who was the college’s vice-president of enrollment, accused the president, Lee E. Monroe, of sexually propositioning her and asking her to travel alone with him to Mexico. When she refused, the suit says, he demoted her to a position at the college’s now-defunct campus in Waco, Tex.
During her five months in Waco, the lawsuit says, he repeatedly offered to promote her if she would agree to a relationship with him. Ms. Marshall was fired in November 1994, when she again refused, the lawsuit says.
President Monroe declined to comment on the suit, but a college trustee said the president “strongly denies” the allegations.
Ms. Marshall was one of a group of employees fired at a time when the college was going through financial difficulties, said the college’s lawyer, John Richards. He dismissed the lawsuit as “the case of a disgruntled ex-employee.”
Trustee Joseph D. Zimmerman said the governing board had investigated Ms. Marshall’s charges and found them baseless. “In fact, after the investigation, we felt even more confident of [Mr. Monroe’s] leadership and integrity,” he said.
Ms. Marshall has sued both the college and the president. Her suit alleges that Mr. Monroe began making sexually suggestive remarks to her shortly after he became president in 1992. He often called her into his office late in the day and asked her to have dinner with him, which she declined to do, the lawsuit alleges.
Reached at her home, Ms. Marshall referred questions to her lawyer, William M. Lamoreaux. “She made it clear that she wasn’t at all interested in a relationship with him,” said Mr. Lamoreaux.
The lawsuit charges that the president then began making “sexually suggestive and vulgar remarks” to Ms. Marshall. “Despite her rejections and efforts to keep their relationship on a professional level, the lewd remarks and pressure for dates continued,” the lawsuit says. On one occasion, the president put his hand on her thigh and refused to remove it until she insisted, the suit alleges.
In November 1993, the lawsuit says, the president offered to promote Ms. Marshall to executive vice-president if she would submit to his sexual advances and accompany him on a trip to Cancun, Mexico.
When she refused, her management responsibilities were taken away and she was sent to the college’s deserted campus in Waco, where the only other employee was a security guard, the suit says. “He was retaliating against her,” Mr. Lamoreaux said. “He sent her off to Siberia.”
Mr. Richards, the college’s lawyer, said Ms. Marshall was never promised a promotion. He said her position was eliminated as part of a reorganization plan.
Rather than dismiss her, Mr. Richards said, the president had created a new job for her, heading a continuing-education program on the Waco campus. But that job was later eliminated because of the college’s financial troubles, Mr. Richards said.
Ms. Marshall’s suit accuses the president of spreading false rumors that she had been fired for mishandling federal programs. The suit says the president had never complained of any such problems while she was employed at Paul Quinn. (College officials declined to comment on the allegation.)
The lawsuit says Ms. Marshall had complained about the president’s behavior to one of the college’s trustees, Jno Walker, who advised her to ignore it. Mr. Walker has denied having any such conversation with her.
The suit says that trustees knew about another incident in which the president had been accused of sexually harassing a woman. It allegedly happened at Florida Memorial College, where Mr. Monroe was president before taking the post at Paul Quinn. Paul Quinn trustees said they were unaware of any harassment complaints against Mr. Monroe at Florida Memorial.
