THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 2, 1995 TAG: 9506020633
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Metro Brief
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Short : 35 lines
Herbert W. Titus, the law school dean fired from Regent University in 1993, will be the first witness today in the trial of three Regent professors challenging the school's tenure system.
The trial was scheduled to start Thursday, but was postponed for one day.
The case was filed last year by five Regent professors, but Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr. ruled Monday that two of the professors - Roger Bern and Paul Morken, fired in 1994 - lacked standing to remain in the lawsuit. Their cases will be transferred to a different part of Circuit Court and heard at another time.
Meanwhile, Hanson rejected motions by both Regent and the remaining three professors - Jeffrey Tuomala, Clifford Kelly and Elaine Waller - to grant summary judgment and rule on the case immediately.
In arguments Monday, the professors' attorney said they have become ``pariahs on the campus'' and they need a judge to interpret their old tenure contracts from 1993.
But a lawyer for Regent said the professors' lawsuit is just a ``procedural ploy'' so they can collect money damages in the future.
The trial is expected to last two or three weeks. Regent founder Pat Robertson has been subpoenaed, but it is not known if he will actually testify.
KEYWORDS: TRIAL REGENT UNIVERSITY LAWSUIT by CNB