Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal By Terrence T. McDonald/The Jersey Journal
Jersey Journal file photoA former New Jersey City University professor has been cited by the state Equal Employment Opportunity office for making "inappropriate and highly offensive" comments regarding a colleague, though the comments did not violate EEO policy.
Jersey Journal file photo. A former New Jersey City University professor has been cited by the state Equal Employment Opportunity office for making "inappropriate and highly offensive" comments regarding a colleague, though the comments did not violate EEO policy.

A former New Jersey City University professor has been cited by the state Equal Employment Opportunity office for making “inappropriate and highly offensive” comments regarding a colleague, though the comments did not violate EEO policy.

The state Office of Equal Employment Opportunity has concluded that a retired New Jersey City University professor made “inappropriate and highly offensive” comments regarding a colleague, but that the comments did not violate the colleague’s civil rights as NJCU had alleged, according to a letter obtained by The Jersey Journal.

William Dusenberry, 70, the professor who was the subject of the EEO investigation, has been a thorn in the side of the university and its president, Carlos Hernandez, for nearly 20 years.

The retired professor has sought since 1995 to bring attention to Hernandez’s claim that he received a master’s degree from the City University of New York. Hernandez admitted in a February 2009 deposition that he did not possess the degree.

In this latest dust-up with university officials, Dusenberry was accused of referring to a colleague as a “pedophile” during a staff meeting because of the colleague’s relationship with a young native girl whose tribe the man researched, according to the Feb. 3, 2012 letter from an EEO official to Dusenberry.

Dusenberry was also found to be the author of a review of the colleague’s book, posted on Amazon, that referred to the man’s “sexual relationship with a pre-adolescent primitive girl,” according to the letter.

While dubbing Dusenberry’s workplace conduct “inappropriate and highly offensive,” investigators concluded he did not violate EEO policy.

The investigation, Dusenberry told The Jersey Journal, is an “attack on my academic freedom.”

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