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Incident 7528 - Resolved

Role: Administrator
Position: Dean
Discipline: Education; Academic Affairs
Specific Discipline: Academic Affairs
Outcome Year: 1989
Outcome Category: No Longer Employed (includes Fired and Contract Non-renewal)
Quote: "Six weeks after a top administrator left Roxbury Community College following accusations that he sexually harassed female employees there, he is still on the payroll drawing an annual salary of $74,385.

Staff members at the college have said that Mohammed A. Malik, the school's dean of academic affairs, has cleaned out his office and has not been at work since the second week of April, yet he continues to receive full pay. He has not officially resigned from his position, and the college's personnel office has received no formal word that he has been fired, according to college staff.

The Massachusetts Commission against Discrimination has said that it is investigating a charge of sexual harassment at the school. In March, The Boston Globe reported that three female staff members said they had been subjected to repeated harassment of a sexual nature by Malik in 1986 and 1987. The women said Malik had touched their bodies and repeatedly propositioned them. Less than two weeks later, college staff members said Malik has not been back to work.

Malik, 54, also reportedly was involved in sexual harassment at an out-of-state college where he worked in an administrative position before coming to Roxbury Community College two years ago.

Although no formal charges were filed at that college, a female staff member said in a telephone interview last week that she had worked previously for Malik and that he harassed her on more than one occasion.

She said that one time he grabbed and kissed her while she was in his office to discuss business. On another occasion he made lewd comments. She said he sometimes tried to entice her to take trips with him, promising to introduce her to people who would advance her career.

The woman requested that her name and the name of the college not be printed. A top administrator at the college, who is no longer employed there, said in a telephone interview that the matter was discussed at the college at the highest executive level, even though the female employee was not willing to file formal charges.

The administrator said Malik's contract with the college was not renewed for a variety of reasons, but primarily because he was involved in repeated conflicts with other staff members and had lost credibility with the faculty.

Roxbury's acting president, William B.D. Thompson, has declined repeatedly to take telephone calls from the Globe on the matter concerning Malik. Last week, he referred calls to the college's attorney, Judy Wong.

Wong said the college is in the process of working out a settlement agreement with Malik. "I would rather not discuss it until it's in final form," she said, adding she hopes "to wrap it up next week."

Thomas Welch, chairman of the college's trustee board, said he had not seen a settlement agreement, though he said that Malik is no longer at the college.

Malik's attorney, Mark E. Schreiber, refused to comment on allegations against his client, saying Malik "is entitled to some privacy."

The sexual charges at Roxbury Community College surfaced several months ago. One of the women involved said she discussed her allegations with Thompson more than a year ago. In January, 21 members of the college's clerical staff sent a petition to Thompson, expressing their concern about rumors of sexual harassment on the campus. In mid-April, Welch said that a decision was imminent on the fate of Malik and that details would be released later that week.

"Nobody's saying anything. It's like 'out of sight, out of mind,' " one of the women who signed the petition said last week. "It's like saying that it's OK to do something like this."

College records show that Malik's salary of $74,385 is an increase of almost $8,200 since he was hired two years ago. It is $16,385 more than the $58,000 salary Thompson receives.

The allegations arise at a time of serious fiscal crisis for public colleges. State schools have also been plagued recently by a spate of scandals, including trust fund abuses and financial mismanagement."

Source: COLLEGE DEAN WHO QUIT AMID CHARGES STILL DRAWS PAY: [THIRD Edition]
Matchan, Linda. Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext); Boston, Mass. [Boston, Mass]21 May 1989: 33. Available in Proquest database
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