Michael Stern suing Auburn

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he summary opens with the fall 2007 semester and spring 2008 semester, when the complaint reads that, “The College of Business Administration sold out to the Koch Foundation and engaged in rigged hiring in exchange for money. Much of this was hidden from the majority of the Economics Department faculty, who found out about it from Auburn University President Jay Gogue in early 2008.”

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Stern became the unanimously-elected chairman of the Economics Department in 2010. In 2013, according to the lawsuit, “the new provost, Dr. Timothy Boosinger, ran off (College of Liberal Arts) Dean Anna Gramberg and brought in Dr. Joseph Aistrup to keep the Public Administration major open at the behest of Auburn athletics.”

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One of Stern’s colleagues said he noticed during the 2013 Iron Bowl that “almost all of the star players on the football team had Public Administration as a major.”

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The high density of football players in that major didn’t go unnoticed by John Urschel of the Baltimore Ravens, who addressed the issue in his “Math Meets Football” blog. Urschel calculated the odds that this could have occurred randomly at roughly one in three undecillion.

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Stern says he continued to have difficulties when dealing with the university, including receiving smaller raises than some other chairs, despite an “outstanding five-year review” and unanimous re-election from his faculty. “This, clearly, is an act of retaliation,” the lawsuit states.

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During a March 2018 Faculty Senate meeting, new faculty athletics representative Beverly Marshall made a presentation regarding six-year graduation rates for male athletes, according to the complaint. Stern responded with his own presentation, highlighting the potential role the Public Administration scandal played in the data she presented. New Athletics Director Allen Greene, who came to Auburn in January following the retirement of former Athletics Director Jay Jacobs, was present at the meeting and “did not look happy,” the lawsuit claims. Ten days later, Stern says, he lost access to the administrative computer system. Aistrup told Stern that “he was being relieved of his duties as Chair, effective immediately.” He was also told to surrender his key – a master key for Miller Hall.

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