Kao

I. BACKGROUND

A. Kao’s Threatening Behavior Dr. Kao earned a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Princeton, began teaching mathematics at USF in 1991, and became a tenured professor in 1997. Kao was concerned about a lack of diversity of the faculty of the math and computer science departments, and submitted a 485-page complaint to the school in May 2006 alleging race-based discrimination and harassment. He lodged a 41-page addendum to the complaint in August 2007, to which Assistant Vice-President Peugh-Wade responded in September 2007. Kao was not satisfied with Peugh-Wade’s two-page response, which he said did not offer any remedies for the problems he perceived with the way the school recruited new faculty. The application period for hiring during the 2007-2008 academic year closed in December 2007, and fewer applications had been received than in prior years. On January 3, 2008, Kao met with mathematics professor Paul Zeitz and then Associate Dean for Sciences Brandon Brown about the school’s failure to advertise in professional journals. At trial, Zeitz described his January 3 meeting with Kao as “the most upsetting thing that’s ever happened to me at my job.” Kao was…