SEMO, EX-TEACHER SETTLE SUIT

Southeast Missouri State University has settled a sexual harassment lawsuit out of court.

The suit is another in a series of high-profile lawsuits that have been settled by the school in the past 10 months.

The university reached an agreement Thursday with the plaintiff, former Southeast Missouri State University music teacher Louisa Panou-Takahashi. The agreement was authorized by the Board of Regents, which discussed the lawsuit in a lengthy closed-door meeting Wednesday.

Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed.

Panou-Takahashi said in her 1995 lawsuit that she was sexually harassed by her department chairman and then fired when she complained.

Dr. Sterling Cossaboom resigned as department chairman last August. He remains on the school payroll as a music professor and director of the university's new Advanced Placement office.

Panou-Takahashi's lawyer, Michael Ponder of Cape Girardeau, said Friday that his client was pleased with the settlement.

The suit had been scheduled for trial Monday in U.S. District Court in Cape Girardeau.

As with the other lawsuits that have been settled, the university insisted on secrecy as a provision of settlement. That goes against the policy of the Missouri attorney general's office: Attorney General Jay Nixon and his staff have argued that any agreement that obligates spending taxpayers' money should be an open record.

"When we enter into negotiations of settlements, our policy is we will not agree to a settlement where the other side insists that it be kept confidential," said James Layton, chief deputy attorney general.

The attorney general's office represents most state agencies named in lawsuits. But the office doesn't represent state universities and the Conservation and Transportation departments, which hire their own lawyers.

Still, even those agencies must obtain approval of the attorney general's office for any settlement that involves payments from the state's legal fund.

Many times settlements involve payments from both the state fund and the internal funds of the agency or university, Layton said.

Layton argued on behalf of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in a lawsuit filed by the newspaper to force the disclosure of a settlement involving the city of St. Louis. But a state appeals court ruled that the settlement could be kept secret. The case was appealed to the Missouri Supreme Court, which within the past two weeks refused to overturn the appellate decision, Layton said.

Despite the outcome, the attorney general's office believes such settlements should be public record. "Taxpayers are entitled to know where their money is going," said Layton.

Ponder said the university included a "gag order" in the settlement that prevents him from discussing it in any detail. "I gave them my word that I wouldn't torture them in the paper," said Ponder.

University officials refused to comment on the suit. Southeast's president, Dr. Dale Nitzschke, said the school's lawyer advised him not to discuss it.

Nitzschke also refused to discuss the issue of sexual harassment because of the lawsuit. He said he could discuss sexual harassment in general at a later date.

Defendants in the lawsuit were the Board of Regents; Cossaboom, and top school officials including former president Dr. Kala Stroup. Stroup was president of the school at the time of the alleged incidents and the filing of the lawsuit.

Panou-Takahashi said Cossaboom made repeated, unwanted visits to her home where he discussed his own marriage. She said Cossaboom often commented about her status as a single woman and suggested she needed a lover. She said Cossaboom told her that single women in Cape Girardeau were considered either lesbians or prostitutes, and that her single status would be considered by the school's promotion and tenure committee.

Panou-Takahashi was an assistant professor of voice at Southeast. A native of Cyprus, she began teaching at the university in 1991. She said Cossaboom gave her bad recommendations and made it hard for her to seek other teaching jobs. School officials refused to promote her from assistant professor to associate professor in December 1993.

She charged that Cossaboom successfully demanded that the music department's promotion and tenure committee reject her request for promotion.

Panou-Takahashi was given her termination notice in June 1995, effective at the end of the 1995-96 school year. She currently is a part-time music teacher at the University of Virginia.