'Former professor wins lawsuit against colleague

Shannon Muchmore
Editor in Chief


A jury has awarded a former OSU assistant English professor more than $150,000 in actual and punitive damages for her lawsuit against a former colleague and current associate professor.

The jury decided Lisa Lewis acted intentionally and with malice to sabotage Andrea Koenig’s bid to receive tenure in 2005. It awarded $136,000 in actual damages and $25,000 in punitive damages in verdicts earlier this month.

Koenig and her lawyers maintained throughout the trial that Lewis had a personal vendetta against Koenig after Koenig began discussing the possibility of a course that studied the Bible as literature. Lewis was furious at Koenig for promoting that idea and told graduate students she would “get” Koenig, court documents allege.

Lewis said she didn’t recall saying that and denied all the charges, according to the documents.

Koenig deferred all questions to her lawyer, Stan Ward.

He said the verdict vindicated his client.

“It’s a scarlet letter type of event for a faculty member to be denied tenure and promotion,” Ward said. “It’s not like I got fired at Wal-Mart and I’ll go work at Target.”

A spokesman for the Oklahoma attorney general said the office is still reviewing its options for continuing with the Koenig case.

“We’re disappointed with the jury’s decision,” Charlie Price said.

The office won’t comment on whether it plans to appeal or when it will make a decision, Price said.

Koenig began working in the creative writing department at OSU in 1999. She was on the tenure track and her contract was extended for three years in 2002. She was authorized to seek tenure for 2005, but a tenure committee composed of five English professors voted 3-2 to deny tenure.

Her employment contract was not renewed and she lost her job in June.

Koenig sued Lewis in July 2005 for intentional interference with a contract and business relationship.

Lewis was not a part of the tenure committee but wrote a letter attacking Koenig’s worthiness for tenure.

The tenure committee relied heavily on Lewis’ letter, which “was nothing short of an impermissible multi-page personal attack aimed at Koenig,” according to Koenig’s trial brief.

Lewis’ trial brief states Lewis acted within the scope of her employment at OSU and was only doing her job.

Koenig has also filed a lawsuit against the Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents alleging breach of contract when she was denied tenure.'