Embattled UW-Madison administrator Paul Barrows has retired from UW-Madison, a fact revealed at his State of Wisconsin Claims Board hearing Wednesday morning. Barrows asked the university for $124,521 in accrued benefits used while he was on unpaid leave due to allegations of sexual misconduct.
UW-Madison Communications Director Amy Toburen confirmed that Barrows opted for early retirement, submitting his letter of retirement Oct. 17, effective Nov. 9.
""I don't know why he selected early retirement, but I have not been in contact with him,"" Toburen said. ""We accepted his decision to retire but the other outstanding issues are litigation issues and I expect those will continue.""
Barrows is indeed continuing to pursue his lawsuits against the university, Wiley and former UW-Madison Dean of Students Luoluo Hong.
Barrows filed a civil rights suit against Wiley, which the Federal District Court dismissed. He appealed the decision to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago and is waiting to hear whether the suit will be reinstated, according to Barrows' attorney Lester Pines.
Hong's lawsuit is pending in the Dane County Circuit Court.
Pines said his claim against UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley is called promissory estoppel. This arises when a promise is made to a person, the person relies on the promise and the promising party reneges on the promise, to the detriment of the person who relied on it.
The claim Wednesday, which the court denied, was based on the fact that Barrows was offered a $150,000-per-year job at Hunter College, which he rejected on the basis of UW-Madison's promise of $150,000 peryear, according to Pines.
""And then they reneged on that,"" Pines said.
Former vice chancellor for student affairs at UW-Madison, Barrows had a sexual relationship with a 40-year-old UW-Madison graduate student, which Wiley discovered in fall 2004.
""I informed him that the very fact of the acknowledged relationship—no matter what its status—had irreparably damaged his ability to continue as vice chancellor,"" Wiley said in a 2005 statement.
Barrows was later accused of sexually harassing several female Bascom employees, including Hong.
On Nov. 1, 2004, Wiley asked Barrows to step down from his position and take two months unpaid leave, after which he would return in a ""back-up position."" Wiley maintains this change in status was not a demotion and assessed the consultant position was one that could have been terminated at any time, for any, or no reason at all.
The Academic Staff Appeals Committee later said Barrows was punished for allegations of sexual harassment without due process and that the allegations did not hold up.
""The only comment I have is that it is ironic that this all started with claims that Paul Barrows had abused his sick leave, and it turns out that Paul Barrows did no such thing—and that's been proven already by the hearing last May before the academic staff appeals committee and by the Steingass report,"" Pines said. ""And yet, the legislature—which were his critics—can't seem to ever take a sick day when they're supposed to.""
