Luke Weinstein was an assistant professor in residence at the UConn School of Business, fighting against the dean, when he and I first spoke more than a decade ago.
Not long before then, in the summer of 2010, Weinstein had been relieved of his duties running the UConn Innovation Accelerator, a program that gave students practical experience in start-up businesses, despite his strong performance reviews.
The reason, he told me at the time: He had complained that Dean Christopher Earley’s changes involving graduate students working at the accelerator violated labor laws and threatened the program; and that Earley was improperly giving favorable treatment to his wife, a full professor in the business school’s management department, where Weinstein taught.
Weinstein had come to academia late in his career, after co-founding and running several tech firms, two of them in Connecticut. He had joined the faculty in 2007, a year before earning his Ph.D from UConn - a highly unusual hire.
By late 2011, Weinstein was out of a job, not reappointed as professor in residence. Earley left for Purdue University in Indiana. And Weinstein filed a lawsuit against Earley and UConn.
Now, after a remarkable 11-year legal journey including two trips to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a state judge has ordered UConn to reinstate Weinstein; pay him $735,867 for lost salary and benefits; and pay legal expenses likely to total $400,000 or more.
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