A former SIUC student has filed a second lawsuit against the university, claiming she lost two jobs because her doctoral degree failed to be posted.
Christi Turpin, who attended the graduate school in the late 1990s, said she was fired from two positions after background checks did not find the doctoral degree she listed on her curriculum vitae. Turpin said she finished her doctoral dissertation and defended it in front of her dissertation committee in March 1999.
Turpin filed a federal lawsuit in 2007 against Graduate Dean John Koropchak, Associate Graduate Dean and Graduate School Director David Wilson, and Nancy Mundschenk, a professor of educational psychology and special education. But because the defendants are employees of the state, the court determined the university and the state were the real parties of interest. The case was then dismissed and Turpin was instructed to bring it to the Illinois Court of Claims. Turpin appealed the decision, which was affirmed in June 2009.
“(Turpin’s) allegations are serious, and she deserves her day in court. Just not in federal court,” the court opinion states.
Turpin said the case is now in the Illinois Court of Claims and depositions are currently being held.
Turpin first learned the university had not posted the degree in 2003 when employed by Parkway School District in St. Louis, according to the lawsuit. Court documents indicate Wilson then sent a letter to the school district saying the degree was not posted because some paperwork was misplaced.
“This error is now being corrected and the degree will be posted in an appropriate manner,” the 2003 letter reads.
Turpin said she believed the problem to have been solved, but encountered it again in 2007 when she was hired by McCarthy Building Companies. The construction company also determined through a background check the doctoral degree had not been posted and Turpin said Wilson and Koropchak then denied she had ever earned the degree. Turpin was fired from the position, where she had a salary of $160,000.
Court documents indicate that in an October 2007 meeting, Mundschenk denied signing off on Turpin’s dissertation and informed her of revisions she needed to make. Turpin said this was the first she heard of any necessary revisions and she has since completed the request.
According to court documents, Stephen McKasson, a document examiner hired by Turpin’s attorney, Darrel Dunham, states his analysis of Mundschenk’s signatures show she did sign off on Turpin’s dissertation.
“There are also subtle similarities of construction, which, in my opinion, a forger would not be able to see and duplicate,” McKasson states in the September 2009 letter.
Turpin said she believes the issue is that the university and administrators do not want to be responsible for the damages she now seeks in addition to her posted doctoral degree.
“They owe me this degree,” Turpin said. “Now we’re looking at a lawsuit that’s going to be several million dollars.”
SIU spokesman Dave Gross said he did not have an official statement from the university, but the legal process would unfold the whole story.
“It’s a pending legal matter,” Gross said. “The judicial system is going to sort it out.”
Koropchak declined to comment on ongoing litigation.
Turpin said depositions would be held within the next few weeks.
Madeleine Leroux can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 254.
