UMKC to pay ex-professor fired amid business school scandal

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- The University of Missouri-Kansas City has agreed to pay a former professor $625,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed after he said he was fired for blowing the whistle on a scandal involving UMKC's business school rankings.

The payment will settle a lawsuit against the school brought by former UMKC professor Richard Arend, the Kansas City Star reported Tuesday. The university also issued a statement with Arend giving him credit for bringing to light that the business school knowingly submitted false data to the Princeton Review, which then ranked UMKC higher than it deserved.

The scandal was first reported by the Star in 2014, with the help of Arend serving as a whistleblower. Arend was fired from UMKC in 2016 for misconduct, which Arend said amounted to retaliation for exposing the false rankings.

In 2015, auditors found officials with the Henry W. Bloch School of Management used false data when applying for rankings. Days later, the Princeton Review stripped the school's Top 25 rankings issued in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

As part of their settlement, UMKC and Arend agreed to make no comments beyond their joint statement. Arend is now a professor at the University of Southern Maine.