ATLANTA -- University of Georgia English professor Jan Kemp was fired for complaining about special treatment for athletes her attorneys argued Tuesday.
However, university lawyers told a federal court jury that many teachers who were not fired also complained about preferential treatment the school gives its scholarship athletes.
Kemp, former head of the English section of the school's remedial program, was first demoted and then fired in 1982. She blamed her dismissal after four years at Georgia on her stand about extra help for student athletes and contributors' children.
'If there were an Olympics for teaching, Dr. Kemp would have won a gold medal,' said her lawyer, Pat Nelson, in opening arguments in U.S. District Court. 'Dr. Kemp's teaching is not on trial.'
Hale Almand, attorney for the university, agreed Kemp was a good teacher. But added she did not get along with her boss and suggested she may have tried to blackmail him into letting her keep her job by threatening to go to the press with her story.
'Are athletes given other forms of assistance, special treatment? Yes, that happened,' Almand said, adding the university is not on trial.
There is a 'tremendous conflict' among the faculty at Georgia over giving athletes extra help -- like permitting them to stay in remedial classes longer than other students are allowed -- Almand told the jury.
'What do you do?' he said. 'There are those who adhere to the belief that they (athletes below C level) are here, they have four quarters to make it, or out they go. We think Dr. Kemp is one of those people.
'But others, including (academic vice president Virginia Trotter and her deputy, Leroy Ervin), hold a much different view. They think, he's here. As long as he's here we're going to do everything we can with him. If we can just teach him to read and write, maybe he can work at the post office rather than as a garbage man when he leaves,' Almand said.
Football is a revenue-producing sport at Georgia, Almand said, adding that it pays the bills for the rest of the sports program.
'Maybe you can begin to understand the necessity for it (special treatment),' he said.
Nelson said she refused Ervin's order that she ask another English teacher to raise some athletes' failing grades. Ervin told her 'one of those students is more important to this university than you are and if you won't do it, somebody will,' Nelson said.
Nelson also said she and other teachers protested when nine football players were moved from remedial to regular classes in 1981, allowing them to play in that year's Sugar Bowl.
During other conflicts with Ervin and Trotter, Ervin twice offered Kemp's job to other teachers, who refused it, Nelson said.
One of the reasons Ervin listed for demoting Kemp was that she resisted taking a smaller office, Nelson said.
After Kemp was fired, more and more athletes were allowed to take extra remedial courses, and other teachers were afraid to speak out about the practice, Nelson said.
