Montana University Professor’s Discrimination Case to Go to Hearing

Article

A state Human Rights Bureau investigator concluded there was reasonable cause to believe Montana State University discriminated against a professor who sought a reduced workload last fall while he was recovering from Bell’s palsy.

Exercise physiology professor Dan Heil said a virus he contracted in June 2014 paralyzed the right side of his face. He hadn’t fully recovered by August and asked to be released from teaching two fall classes. He still planned to do research and oversee graduate students.

Instead, MSU officials put him on full medical leave until he got a doctor’s note.

Heil called it a “textbook example of discrimination based upon ‘perceived disability,”‘ which is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

MSU officials said there was no discrimination because the university had not taken any adverse employment action against him and the medical leave only lasted for a week, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported.

Human Rights Bureau investigator Josh Manning found grounds for discrimination in a decision Heil received in March.

MSU spokeswoman Carol Schmidt released a statement Tuesday emphasizing that Manning’s findings are preliminary.

“The university will have an opportunity to have the matter heard anew and in full by a hearing officer of the Montana Department of Labor,” Schmidt said.

After Heil got a doctor’s letter allowing him to return to work he received a letter from Lynda Ransdell, dean of MSU’s College of Education, Health and Human Development, that said he could return to MSU full time in the spring if he had a doctor’s note saying he could work “without any restrictions or limitations.”

He wasn’t sure how quickly he would recover.

“I was scared for my job, scared for my future,” Heil said.

He filed a grievance in October, but the university found he had not been discriminated against because he had not been hurt professionally. He argues the only reason he didn’t suffer professionally was because he ignored MSU’s orders to stay home.

Heil was able to return to work full time in January and feels about 75 percent recovered.

The Human Rights Bureau suggested coming up with a settlement, but MSU rejected Heil’s proposal that MSU apologize, change its policy and compensate him for hundreds of hours he spent fighting the policy.