Ohio University professor Jay Gunasekera settles lawsuit over his role in plagiarism scandal
The Columbus Dispatch
March 9, 2011
Ohio University professor Jay Gunasekera has settled a lawsuit over his role in a plagiarism scandal that has stained the school since 2004.
Gunasekera will receive $32,501 in the settlement that was finalized Monday on top of the $118,238 that was awarded to him last month for attorney's fees.
He was chairman of the Ohio University's mechanical-engineering department when plagiarism allegations were leveled in 2004 against several candidates for master's and doctoral degrees. Gunasekera sued the university in federal court after he was stripped of his role as graduate adviser during the school's investigation into whether several students had copied others' work.
Gunasekera specifically sued engineering dean Dennis Irwin and former Executive Vice President Kathy Krendl, arguing that they denied him an opportunity to clear his name of allegations that he ignored plagiarism among graduate students.