The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is the University of Iowa. They get the award for the following.

The University of Iowa paid $226,000 to a former law professor who was accused of forging students’ evaluations of his effectiveness as a teacher, The Des Moines Register reported. The professor, Kenneth Kress, resigned in January 2006. Citing a settlement agreement reached the previous year, the newspaper reported that in exchange for his resignation, the university agreed to pay Mr. Kress $203,400 in cash, deposit $22,600 into his retirement account, and provide him with health insurance through June 2008, along with other benefits.

The university entered into the settlement agreement to avoid “the expense and time of further proceedings” with a faculty judicial panel, the document states. It makes no mention of the forgery allegations. A commission of the Iowa Supreme Court, however, is reviewing those accusations, and Mr. Kress faces a possible suspension of his law license.

There's more

Records from the Supreme Court's Grievance Commission indicate it was on April 19, 2004, that Kress gave 10 students in his mental health law class a survey in which they were asked to rate his performance as an instructor.

According to the commission, Kress later admitted that he substituted some of the less favorable surveys for ones that he had created. He also changed other students' ratings of his performance from "average" to "outstanding."

One of Kress' former students, Jody Harris, testified in November before the Supreme Court commission. She said that when Kress handed out the surveys he told the students other faculty members were trying to force him out and were intimidated by him because he was so much smarter.

Harris testified that when she found out Kress had changed her survey answers she was "very disappointed in the law school and professor Kress."

Linda McGuire, the associate dean of student affairs at the law school, testified before the Supreme Court commission that other students were "really upset" and felt betrayed by Kress' actions.

According to the commission records, Kress has bipolar disorder. One doctor who testified before the commission attributed Kress' actions to delirium and delusions. Another doctor disagreed, citing Kress' "fragile ego" and an inability to tolerate negative reviews of any kind.

Kress has admitted to forging documents and may be disbarred, but the University gives the professor an almost quarter million dollar severance package. Does what the University of Iowa did remind anyone of this recent Florida story? For rewarding unethical behavior, The University of Iowa is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

Hat tip- Tax Prof Blog by the way of Eugene Volokh
Linked to- Basil, Big Dog, Blue Star, Bright & Early, Conservative Thoughts, Jo, Leaning Straight Up, Morewhat, Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson, Pirate's Cove, Random Yak, Right Wing Nation, Third World County,