COMMITTEE NULLIFIES SUSPENSION AT SEMO

A Southeast Missouri State University grievance committee said the five-day suspension of a school staff member earlier this year was "excessive" and went beyond school policy.

Debra Mitchell-Braxton, an assistant director of the Campus Assistance Center, was suspended without pay for five days earlier this year.

But the three-member grievance committee earlier this fall ruled the suspension went beyond "a reasonable interpretation of established policy and procedure."

The committee nullified the suspension and expunged it from her personnel file. She was also given back pay.

The committee's decision followed a hearing before the committee in July.

University officials refused to comment on the action, saying it was a personnel matter. The committee's ruling was disclosed by Mitchell-Braxton.

The suspension resulted from an incident on April 5 in the Campus Assistance Center involving Mitchell-Braxton and the wife of another assistant director of the center.

There are differing accounts of what was said. But Mitchell-Braxton said Thursday she should have never been suspended by her supervisor for what she termed "a discussion."

About 20 black students at Southeast staged a sit-in in front of the Campus Assistance Center in the University Center in early May to protest the suspension. The protesters claimed it was racism. School officials disagreed.

"It was not related to her race or any legal unpleasantness between herself and the university," Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president, said in May.

Wallhausen said Mitchell-Braxton's conduct had "exceeded the bounds of acceptable behavior and, as such, could not go unaddressed."

Mitchell-Braxton filed a federal lawsuit in 1994 contending that she wasn't hired as director of the Campus Assistance Center because of her race. The lawsuit is still pending. School officials have denied the allegation.

Mitchell-Braxton said she had to spend several thousand dollars in legal fees to fight the suspension.

"A simple discussion on the job has cost me quite a bit just to get to this point," she said.

"I didn't steal money from the university. I didn't smoke crack. I don't even know what drugs look like," she said. "The bottom line is I never should have been suspended."