Felner troubles uncovered at U of Illinois U-C

Page One has uncovered information that suggests former UofL Dean Robert Felner’s troubles go back as far as the 1980s during his days at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

...Felner was a member of the Clinical/Community PhD program in the Department of Psychology at UIUC from roughly 1986 to 1990 and was the program’s director (Director of Clinical Training) from 1987 to 1989. Sometime during the late fall of 1989 that program’s faculty (who selects the DCT) asked Felner to step down.

The reasons include ... reports of attempts to interfere with the achievements of colleagues– or an attempt to keep someone from reaching tenure, allegations of sexual harassment, intimidation of students, inappropriate treatment of staff members and multiple allegations of direct and personal intimidation. There are multiple, specific incidences of each reported problem with the exception of the tenure situation...

...After Felner stepped down from his DCT position and was moved to the Institute of Government Affairs, there was an investigation undertaken by UIUC legal counsel ... University officials refuse to reveal the scope of the investigation to us but assure us that the department (and colleagues) Felner was affiliated with was exhonerated of whatever it was...

Felner, who has been described to KSN&C as "a New York street fighter" was also accused of retaliation against a colleague who wrote critically of one of Felner's programs.

In September 1991, Alonzo Mitchell published several articles in critical of another community-based research project headed by psychology Professor Robert Felner and subsequently found his own program cut. ...Mitchell reported directly to Julian Rappaport, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University. Rappaport in turn reported to Emanuel Donchin, the head of the Department of Psychology at the University...

Rappaport cited severe budgetary constraints, the deteriorating physical facility, and the program's failure as a training ground for graduate students as reasons for terminating the program's funding. Donchin approved the termination.

On February 22, 1994, Mitchell filed a four-count complaint against several University of Illinois administrators and professors, not including Donchin and Rappaport. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Mitchell alleged that the defendants violated his First Amendment rights by terminating the funding for Oasis Graphics Arts in retaliation for publishing articles in the Ground Level Critique critical of the New North Project and Felner. Mitchell supported his complaint with statements allegedly made to him by Rappaport that indicated that the named defendants were behind the decision to terminate the funding for Oasis Graphics Arts. Specifically, Mitchell alleged that Rappaport stated that he had strongly opposed terminating the funding for Oasis Graphics Arts, but that he had been overruled by the defendants. Mitchell further alleged that Rappaport told him that "it was that f..... Felner that's behind this. I know it is Bob Felner that caused this to happen." ...

District and appeals courts held for the defendants.