THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Saturday, July 9, 1994                 TAG: 9407090185
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                     LENGTH: Medium:   56 lines

PROF AT REGENT FILES SEXUAL-BIAS COMPLAINT SHE CONTENDS HER CONTRACT WAS ALTERED AFTER SHE SPOKE OUT.

A professor has filed a sexual-discrimination complaint against Regent University, alleging that her contract was recently changed after she complained about sexual harassment.

The complaint from communications Professor Elaine S. Waller is the latest volley in an internal fracas embroiling the evangelical graduate school, which was founded by Pat Robertson.

Waller's complaint, filed last month with the Norfolk office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said: ``On January 14, 1994, I was subjected to a sexual comment. On January 17, I complained about the sexual comment. On May 17, I received a two-year contract instead of my continuous contract.

``No reason has been given for the sexual comment or the change in the length of time on my contract.''

The complaint did not detail the comment or identify who made it, and Waller declined further comment.

``Any connection between the two allegations is totally unfounded,'' George Selig, the university's provost, said Friday.

He said Waller was among 16 professors who were shifted to two-year contracts in a recent recrafting of the university's promotion policy. The idea, he said, is to encourage them ``to get started on scholarship for publication.''

In early June, Waller was among five professors who sued Regent. The professors, who either were fired or were given shorter contracts, alleged that the changes violated the university's tenure policy. But Selig has argued that Regent was free to change the professors' status.

Waller has been teaching at the university since its creation in 1978. Recently she has been among a corps of professors criticizing the administration for straying from its conservative Christian roots. But Selig has argued that Regent must move toward the mainstream.

The turmoil at Regent began last summer, when longtime law Dean Herbert W. Titus was ousted. Eight law professors sent a letter to the American Bar Association last September, complaining about Titus' removal. That drew an angry response from Robertson, who compared them to ``cultists'' blindly following their leader.

Regent recently fired three law professors, two of whom signed the ABA letter.

The EEOC is a federal agency that investigates discrimination allegations. If it believes a complaint is valid, it can sue an employer on behalf of the complainant.

KEYWORDS: COMPLAINT SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION REGENT UNIVERSITY SEXUAL

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