Three former Southern University at New Orleans professors win more than $422K in back pay

Three former Southern University at New Orleans professors fired after Hurricane Katrina should get more than $422,000 in back pay from the university, a Civil District Court judge has ruled.

Judge Nakisha Ervin-Knott sided last week with formerly tenured teachers Robert Perry, Shirley Williams-Scott and Audrey McGee, who argued that SUNO’s move to furlough them after the 2005 storm devastated its Gentilly campus was arbitrary and capricious.

SUNO failed to persuade Ervin-Knott that it followed all of its rules governing layoffs and appeals of such decisions.

The teachers sued in 2006, and their case has dragged on for years. It initially covered a larger group of SUNO employees, but several others agreed in 2014 to settle with the university out of court.

Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/article_648cefe4-a4b0-11e8-bf10-8f4297b8aef6.html