'A former dean of a University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey school remains on the payroll as a highly paid professor.

Dr. R. Michael Gallagher, the former dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford, is being paid $128,695 a year nearly six months after resigning his administrative post.

Gallagher resigned amid allegations that he improperly billed UMDNJ for more than $200,000 in questionable expenses, including expensive liquor, restaurant meals and hotel stays.

According to a report issued in the spring by a federal monitor overseeing UMDNJ, Gallagher also directed subordinates to doctor financial records so he could qualify for bonuses.

Gallagher and his attorney, Jeremy Frey, have declined comment on the allegations.

UMDNJ officials are moving to terminate Gallagher's tenure, spokeswoman Anna Farneski said, adding that he is a clinical professor who does not have classroom duties. [$128,000 is a lot of salary for a disgraced professor whose university is trying to fire him. On the other hand, at least he doesn't work for it.]

Under the faculty contract, professors may appeal recommendations to terminate tenure through arbitration by the state Public Employment Relations Commission.

The timetable for termination cases varies wildly, said Debra Osofsky, executive director of the UMDNJ faculty union.

"It is very rare to have the administration try to terminate a tenured faculty member," Osofsky said. "We're assuming that this case is going to go all the way."

At Rutgers, only one professor has been stripped of tenure in the last few decades, and the process was extremely slow, said Robert Boikess, a former chairman of the union's negotiating committee.

"It's extremely lengthy," Boikess said, adding that the process entailed 35 meetings, followed by 10 years of litigation.'