THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 15, 1994 TAG: 9407150579
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 60 lines
A former law dean sued Regent University on Thursday, alleging that Regent violated his contract when it fired him last year and that school officials defamed the dean by portraying him as a ``white supremacist.''
The suit, filed by Herbert W. Titus in Virginia Beach Circuit Court, represents the latest chapter in a highly public feud dividing the campus.
The outcome could chart the university's academic direction and the law school's future.
The law school has been granted provisional accreditation by the American Bar Association and is awaiting a decision on full accreditation.
The suit paints a wide web of conspiracy against Titus that includes Pat Robertson, who is Regent's founder and a former friend of Titus'; university officials and board members; and leaders of Robertson's American Center for Law and Justice, which defends conservative Christian causes in court.
The suit says Regent's president, Terry Lindvall, called Titus a ``racist'' in front of professors.
It says the No. 2 administrator, Provost George Selig, repeatedly wrote ``incomplete and misleading'' reports on Titus' performance and met with officials from Robertson's law center and the ABA to gather ``information prejudicial to Titus.''
Lindvall declined comment on most of the allegations Thursday night, but he denied calling Titus a racist. ``I'm shocked and astonished,'' he said. ``There's no truth in it whatsoever. I've no idea where that comes from.''
Selig said that Titus' descriptions of his reports were unfounded and that Titus never issued a written complaint.
Critics saw Titus' firing last summer as the first step in a gradual abandonment of the school's conservative roots. But university administrators have stressed that Regent must move into the ``Christian mainstream.''
The effect of Titus' ouster on the school's final accreditation status has also been debated.
The suit says a 1992 report by Selig, reviewing ABA concerns, ``implied that an anti-Catholic bias existed at the law school and expressly stated that the theological and philosophical perspectives of the college were narrow, rigid and on the fringe of or outside of the evangelical mainstream.''
However, the suit says, an ABA report last year characterized Titus as ``an able and dedicated founding dean who, by virtue of his teaching prowess and scholarly productivity, serves as a powerful role model for the faculty.''
Titus has also received ``top ratings'' and ``complete and unqualified support'' from his faculty, the suit says. Eight Regent law professors sent a letter to the ABA criticizing Titus' dismissal. Two of them recently were fired, but Regent officials say that was not related to their complaint.
Titus' suit names 10 people as defendants - including Robertson; his wife, Dede; and his son Timothy - as well as the university and law center. Titus is seeking more than $10 million in damages.
A year ago Thursday, the suit says, Pat Robertson told Titus he had been ``sandbagged'' by Selig and former Regent President David Gyertson.
Robertson, the suit says, promised Titus he wouldn't be fired. Five days later, Robertson announced that an interim dean had been appointed. by CNB