Opinion ID: 2551099
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sengupta's Grievances Against the University of Alaska Fairbanks (Parrish Hearing)

Text: Mritunjoy Sengupta was a tenured professor of Mining Engineering at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). In 1992 and 1993 Sengupta filed three grievances against UAF, asserting that he was not considered for promotion to acting head of his department or director of the Mining and Mineral Resource Research Institute, and that he should have received various pay increases. [1] James Parrish served as the hearing officer for Sengupta's grievance proceedings. [2] Thomas Wickwire was Sengupta's lawyer. On June 24, 1994, Parrish issued a lengthy written decision dismissing Sengupta's grievances. Parrish found that Sengupta was not a credible witness and that he had repeatedly and purposefully been untruthful during the grievance proceedings. Parrish found that during the hearing Sengupta presented false documents, lied about being laid off from a previous job, and lied about unfounded public attacks he had made against colleagues. Parrish also found that Sengupta had mischaracterized his degree on his resume, that he had plagiarized the work of another professor, and that Sengupta and his wife had improperly accessed the bank account of a UAF student in an attempt to attack the professional reputation of another professor. After Parrish issued his findings, Wickwire wrote a letter to Sengupta recommending that he initiate a communication process with the university chancellor to try to repair any damage done during the grievance hearings. Wickwire cautioned that he thought it likely that the chancellor might initiate disciplinary proceedings against Sengupta based on the Parrish findings. Wickwire informed Sengupta that he believed Mr. Parrish [had] done a very thorough job of evaluating the evidence in detail and logically reasoning through the evidence on each point to reach his conclusions. Based on this letter, Sengupta decided not to appeal the Parrish decision.