Ten days later, Stern says, he lost access to the administrative computer system. Aistrup told Stern that “he was being relieved of his duties as Chair, effective immediately.” He was also told to surrender his key – a master key for Miller Hall.

The department was moving into new offices in Miller Hall in late May, and Aistrup and his associates did not supervise the furniture delivery and installation. As a result, Stern’s office walls were damaged and needed to be repaired, and new furniture had to be ordered, according to the complaint.

“In the meantime, the contents of Plaintiff’s office were dumped on the floor of a different room in Miller Hall with no furniture and to which Plaintiff no longer had a key,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff worked on the floor – no furniture – for the next week and a half and had to ask the department’s secretary to let him into the office.”

The lawsuit

Stern, who is still employed by Auburn, is suing the university for attorney’s fees, costs, injunctive relief, interest, back pay from his retaliatory removal and the raises he should have received, as well as being placed in the position he would have worked; or in the alternative, front pay.