Legal director demoted by McKaig

John Irvine, director of Student Legal Services, has been relieved of his duties, as Dean of Students Richard McKaig asked him to step down last week, citing personnel issues.\nAssistant Director of SLS Paula Gordon will serve as the interim director through June 30. In the near future, McKaig will appoint a review committee to look at the mission, structure, management and operating policies of the SLS Office. Irvine is now a staff attorney, and there has been no pay decrease for him.\nIrvine has been SLS director for more than 30 years and is only the second director in the office's history. He said he did not see his demotion coming.\n"This whole thing has come as a surprise to me," he said. "I was asked to meet with Dean McKaig. I didn't think this was what it was about. I've never had a written reprimand from him. I've never really even had an oral one."\nMcKaig said he could not reveal the specifics of the demotion because of University policy regarding personnel issues, but said he expects many changes within the office in the future.\nIrvine has already begun to fight the decision by submitting a formal complaint to the human resources office, writing a six to seven page letter to McKaig and enlisting the help of Bloomington attorney Robert Mann. He said his next steps in the process will be to meet with McKaig in the next few weeks and then have a meeting with IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis.\nAlthough he said he hasn't been reprimanded before, Irvine has had complaints in the past about the direction of SLS. SLS is a department of the Office of Student Affairs, which gives students legal advice and represents them in civil matters.\nOne area which has caused him much grief is the definition of legal representation and how the office should work for students. The office cannot represent people directly in criminal matters, but can give them advice. \n"We have limited ability," he said. "We try to tell about the trial diversion program. Occasionally I'll call the prosecutor's office directly, only when it is something truly egregious, and I'll try to get charges dropped. And they know that I'm not representing them directly. And the question that arises is what is to advise and what is to represent. And to me, to represent is to actually go to a hearing and act as the lawyer. Advise is when you come to the office and we talk. I look over documents, tell you what documents to get."\nIrvine said he has also run into trouble dealing with the Office of Student Ethics, led by director Pam Freeman. He said the University has asked him to back off a few issues.\n"One of the problems is that the Ethics office has taken a position that students are not entitled to photocopies of their records," he said. "They can come over and look at them, but they can have no copies. I looked over the code and the law, and I decided that students are entitled to copies. They can be charged a modest fee. I pushed very, very hard for that. I'm told now that they have changed their policies."\nIrvine was again warned by the University and said he was "threatened that if (he) didn't cease and desist, (he) would face an adverse employment action."\nIrvine said a lot of it is because he acknowledges he can be rather tough. \n"I was cautioned that I was not nice to people when they disagreed with me and I pushed too hard for students and that I was too involved with the Indiana University Judicial System," he said.\nIrvine said after the committee makes its suggestions and all changes are made, SLS will not be the office he fell in love with more than 30 years ago.\n"It'll be a softer, kinder, gentler law firm and I'm opposed to that," he said. "I'm opposed to not representing every aspect of our clientele vigorously. In order to be an advocate for students, I have to push. I have to push a lot of people very hard."\nGordon, who has worked at SLS since 1977, said she will definitely make quite a few changes as director.\n"It'll be more of a team approach amongst the attorneys," she said.\nStill, Irvine said he wouldn't change much about the structure of the office. He said the only thing he would change is possibly the way he deals with people.\n"If it came down to compromising my ideals to keep the position, I wouldn't do it," he said. "I'll never stop fighting for students."\n-- Contact managing editor Adam Aasen at aaasen@indiana.edu.