A University of Houston administrator resigned Friday after officials found she falsified the signature of a campus speaker who refused to sign a controversial state form through which contractors renounce the boycott of Israel.

An employee record dated Thursday asserted that Jeanette Martinez, a UH administrative coordinator, submitted a form with the signature of Vanessa Villarreal, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Southern California who led a workshop at UH in February. There was no record of anyone at UH sending Villarreal the form to sign.

“We have determined that the administrator who processed Ms. Villarreal’s contract to speak at the university falsified a document we now know Ms. Villarreal refused to sign in order to process her payment,” UH spokesman Mike Rosen said. “Our review eliminated any possibility that the form containing Ms. Villarreal’s signature originated outside the university.”

Martinez did not respond to an email sent to her university account on Friday. Martinez, who has worked at UH for five years, resigned in lieu of termination on Friday, a UH spokesman said.

UH officials combed through emails between Martinez and Villarreal, who spoke at UH in February, in response to an open records request from the Houston Chronicle regarding Villarreal’s visit.

Villarreal previously told the Houston Chronicle she did not sign the form. When the Chronicle had asked UH for the document, UH provided a signed form that the university later determined Martinez falsified.

On Friday, Martinez’s supervisor apologized to Villarreal, acknowledged the document was falsified and told her Martinez resigned in lieu of termination.

“I was really, really shocked,” Villarreal said in an interview Friday. “My integrity as an artist, as a speaker, as a person, was being challenged by the existence of this document I didn’t sign.”

A state law that went into effect in September prohibits state entities — including public colleges and universities — from contracting with or investing public money in companies that boycott Israel. A company, by Texas’ definition, includes for-profit sole proprietorships, associations, organizations and corporations.

Changed interpretation

Rosen said he had no indication of other falsifications of the no-boycott Israel form. In staff policy, UH lists dishonest actions and falsification of university records as causes for disciplinary action or dismissal.

He said Martinez’s motive, derived from the communications UH reviewed, appeared to be that she was trying to get Villarreal paid after a lengthy back-and-forth following the on-campus workshop Villarreal conducted. Martinez will be ineligible for rehire, Rosen said.

“Based on what we can see, we know the speaker had inquired multiple times in a 60-day period (for payment),” he said. "(Martinez) was not acting out of any political motivation (based on) the content of the documents ... we've observed and the communications we have had with her."

Villarreal, a UH alumna, came to campus for a workshop series in February. Weeks later, she still hadn’t been paid, and she emailed UH, asking when she could expect payment.

In early April, Martinez received a copy of an email from a UH financial administrator, who alerted university departments of UH’s new interpretation of the no-boycott Israel law. Campus speakers who are not companies as defined in Texas law would not need to complete the form, Assistant Vice President for Finance Karin Livingston wrote.

Rosen said the guidance came informally from the state’s attorney general’s office, which the office could not confirm Friday.

But later in the month, after Villarreal again inquired about the status of her payment from the February workshop, Martinez told Villarreal that signing the form would be necessary for payment. She did not provide the form to Villarreal in that email, and UH said it could not find any record of her sending the form to Villarreal.

Villarreal, shortly after, told Martinez that her request was “unacceptable,” as it was made after the contract was signed and her services were rendered.

“I refuse to sign a revised contract or any boycott Israel form,” she wrote. “On these grounds alone I do have the right to sue in court.”

She posted publicly on social media that evening about the exchange, a Twitter post that was ultimately shared by several thousand people.

So, The University of Houston is making me sign a "No Boycott

Israel" document all speakers must sign, even retroactively, before they pay me. My workshop was in February. — Vanessa Angélica Villarreal (@Vanessid) April 23, 2018

The next morning, Martinez uploaded a signed form into UH’s web system, records show. Minutes later, she emailed Villarreal and said the $700 payment was approved.

Later in the week, Martinez’s supervisor Norma Quinones sought to reassure Martinez after Villarreal’s wide-reaching Twitter post. At that point, Quinones had seen the signed no-boycott Israel form uploaded to UH’s internal system.

“The fact that she signed, regardless of what she thought, gives her no grounds.” Quinones wrote to Martinez. “Plus she would have gotten paid anyway."

In a second email, she added: "And this is how writers get attention. She is doing it for attention. Please stop no one is worried but you."

Quinones did not respond to an email seeking comment on Friday. In an email to Villarreal reviewed by the Chronicle, she pledged to work with the university’s business administrators responsible for contracting “on the importance of adhering to our established policies and practices.”

Villarreal on Friday said she felt bad that Martinez lost her job but said the exchange undermined her faith in Houston, her hometown.

“I feel incredibly violated that my signature was forged on a political issue I feel really strongly about,” she said.

Lindsay Ellis writes about higher education for the Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter and send her tips at lindsay.ellis@chron.com.