USM pays professor $7,000 settlement

PORTLAND – The University of Southern Maine has paid a professor $7,000 as part of a grievance settlement between the school and the professor stemming from his remarks in videotaped lectures about minorities and homosexuals.

Details of the confidential settlement between USM and John Broida became public after the Portland Press Herald filed a Freedom of Information request.

Broida filed a grievance against the school saying it had harmed his reputation in the way it handled a student complaint charging him with making offensive remarks against minorities and homosexuals.

Broida said he likes to provoke student thought through his unorthodox lecture style.

Following the complaint, the university dropped Broida’s introductory psychology course last spring.

The payment was made to reimburse Broida for the money he would have been paid to teach the course, said Bob Caswell, spokesman for USM, which has campuses in Portland, Gorham and Auburn.