Lombardi accused of bullying visiting law school deans

By RAY WASHINGTON
Sun Staff Writer
Thursday, June 24, 1999

  1. University of Florida President John Lombardi may be in hot water again with the Board of Regents as a result of allegations that he "acted with gross discourtesy and as an immature bully" in a meeting with two law school deans who visited the UF campus last fall.

  2. "It is unknown to us whether President Lombardi has been licensed to abuse visitors to the University of Florida campus, or is simply unable to control himself," University of Texas law school dean Michael Sharlot and University of North Carolina law school dean Judith Wegner wrote Vice Chancellor James Mau on Nov. 9, in a letter whose existence was first reported in the St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday.

  3. "Whatever the explanation, future Consultants should be given notice that the President may vent his penchant for abusive behavior upon them. They should be told that they may have their intelligence, ethics, and good faith questioned to their faces and expect to have their professional reputations impugned behind their backs."

  4. Sharlot and Wegner had been hired by the regents to complete a program review of UF's College of Law, and had met with Lombardi in October as part of that process. When the consultants began discussion of a Lombardi-developed performance incentive program called "The UF Bank," Sharlot and Wegner wrote, "the president erupted in a rage that was utterly disproportionate to any sin of the Consultants.

  5. "With an anger seemingly barely controlled, and contempt unconcealed, the president leaned forward and launched into a stream of vituperation charging the Consultants were utterly misinformed, had made charges without any basis, and were merely tools in the Law School's improper -- but transparent -- effort to increase its budget."

  6. Lombardi did not respond to requests for comments Wednesday, but Chancellor Adam Herbert issued a prepared statement that he had "discussed this issue with President Lombardi and heard his side of the story. After hearing his explanation regarding the factors that precipitated his reaction, I expressed my concerns about the situation. I indicated that the matter would be addressed more extensively during his annual evaluation."

  7. Regents Chairman Dennis Ross said he had "full confidence" in Herbert's decision to bring the incident before the regents as part of Lombardi's annual evaluation, which will be held this fall prior to regents decisions on university president pay raises.

  8. "If that is the way he wants to handle this situation, I support that," Ross said.

  9. Regent Steve Uhlfelder called the alleged incident "regrettable."

  10. "Nobody can be pleased about this, including John. We should be able to disagree with people in a civilized way," said Uhlfelder, a former UF student body president who, as regents chairman last year, had called for Lombardi's ouster after Lombardi called Herbert, who is black, an "Oreo."

  11. Uhlfelder, no longer chairman, said he hopes Lombardi will make some effort to atone for the allegedly abusive incident.

  12. "These are representatives that we hired that came from two outstanding institutions and I think they are owed an apology at least," he said.

  13. Lombardi, in a letter written to Mau immediately after the incident, called Sharlot and Wegner "highly qualified and experienced individuals" and "good people," but said "they became advocates, inadvertently of course, for various factions within the law college or advocates about campus-wide issues that had already been settled. . . it makes the college appear uninformed on university policies about which the dean is in fact fully informed and publicly supportive."

  14. A few months after that letter, UF law dean Richard Matasar was forced to resign -- a resignation Lombardi declined to "unaccept," despite pleas from influential UF College of Law graduates, including former Florida Supreme Court Justice Raymond Ehrlich. Neither Lombardi nor Matasar have publicly discussed the circumstances surrounding Matasar's forced resignation.

  15. Center for Governmental Responsibility Director Jon Mills will take over as dean Sept. 1.

  16. Reached Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Florida Bar Association in Boca Raton, Matasar would only say that he was pleased that "the law school got a very good review" from Sharlot and Wegner, "whatever may have occurred between the president and the review team."

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