University of Connecticut professor Sherry Zane issued a complaint against UConn and individuals involved in the university on March 5, following her February arrest on one count of first-degree larceny.
Zane was an associate professor in residence and interim director of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) at the time of her arrest. She has been on administrative leave as of Nov. 15 while investigations continue.
The complaint has been raised against University President Radenka Maric, Provost Anne D’Alleva, Director of University Compliance Kimberly Hill and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Ofer Harel. The Nov. 14 document detailing the allegations against Zane was sent from Hill to D’Alleva and Harel, with others, including Zane, carbon copied to the email.
The Nov. 14 document cites an anonymous report about Zane that stated she had been taking expensive trips to various locations for pleasure but writing off as work-related expenses.
The civil action movement was originally under the jurisdiction of the Superior Court of Connecticut, Judicial District of Tolland. On March 19, the case was moved to the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut.
Zane’s complaint raises four counts against the various defendants. The complaint alleges that Harel, D’Alleva and Maric violated the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause and the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process clause. These two counts are related to alleged wage theft associated with the money she had allegedly used for personal trips.
This counterclaim is a civil case, while the charge against her is being tried in criminal courts. Michael Thad Allen, of Allen-Harris PLLC law firm, is Zane’s attorney for the civil action case. Zane’s criminal attorney is Trent LaLima of Santos & LaLima, P.C.
The Daily Campus reached out to LaLima for comment but has yet to receive a response.
“We have contemporaneous documents that say she was entitled to this research account, which was made up of her own wages,” said Allen in an interview with the Daily Campus.
“[The university] didn’t make a final decision on [Zane’s] case,” said Allen. “And quite frankly, they didn’t even bother to get some of the most relevant evidence. Like, whether they should have asked her colleagues [if] she was conducting legitimate research or not. But they still ran and reported this to the police and got her arrested.”
A count of defamation has been specifically placed on Hill as a part of this complaint.
“Defendant Kimberly Hill intentionally defamed and published false statements in order to ruin the reputation of Professor Zane and get her arrested for ‘larceny’ due to Professor Zane’s insistence that she be paid her rightfully earned wages,” the complaint said.
This count is in association with the Nov. 14 document authored by Hill.
“In particular, Defendant Hill issued a so-called ‘Report’ (dated November 14, 2024), which is clearly erroneous on its face,” the complaint said. “Defendant Hill not only published this Report but then UConn supplied the Report to law enforcement to get Professor Zane arrested. UConn then supplied the defamatory statements once again to the Hartford Courant, so that Professor Zane could be dragged into the public sphere.”
The Daily Campus reached out to Hill for comment, who referred the paper to UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz.
“The university does not comment on pending litigation, especially during the course of ongoing personnel action with the claimant,” said Reitz in an email.
“Why is the university allowing its so-called compliance officers to openly lie about employees? There are various research trips that [Zane] took, and they are claiming that all of them are illegitimate,” said Allen, referencing Hill’s Nov. 14 document.
In the complaint, Zane also requests her allegedly withheld wages (of over $80,000, according to the complaint) and requests “reputational damages arising from defamation per se.”
According to Zane’s complaint, UConn withheld these wages as a part of a collective bargaining agreement with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Under this agreement, professors cannot earn more than their 12-month salary every year, even if they take on extra university work, such as summer classes. The only way for a professor to earn additional money is by taking on even more extra hours, including in the form of research.
“Professor Zane earned deferred compensation by teaching extra classes, revisiting coursework, or settling on a committee that works over the summer,” the complaint said. “Then, she had to earn her compensation once again by engaging in faculty research or other service to the University. In that event, she was allowed to draw down funds which were basically withheld compensation to cover the travel fees, expenses, materials, or other costs.”
The complaint alleges that all of the extra compensation that Zane had earned was placed into a separate account.
“By the plan language of the contract, the account could be used for ‘a wide variety of purposes’ consistent with the University’s mission, not exclusively ‘research,’” it said. “For example, ‘teaching … supplies or equipment, scholarly travel, and related expenses.’”
The complaint includes an affidavit from Cathy Schlund Vials, who was the associate dean for humanities, diversity, equity and inclusion in CLAS in 2018. Vials asserts in her affidavit that, while Zane was teaching summer classes in 2018, the university could not compensate her properly for them. Instead, Zane agreed to waive compensation, and that money was then placed in the aforementioned research account.
The waive compensation document attached to the complaint lists Zane having waived over $9,000 that she had earned from July 8, 2018, to Aug. 13, 2018. The agreement does note the existence of this account and its previously stated uses, but includes that the account “may not, however, be used to pay or supplement the employee’s salary.” Vials signed this document.
The complaint includes an affirmation from UConn WGSS professor Françoise Dussart.
“I find these allegations misleading. Sherry Zane has done nothing wrong and for her to be charged with a crime is unfathomable,” the affirmation said. “It is my strong belief that Sherry Zane’s trips to Belfast were undoubtedly tied to her professional and academic research of the murals and how the community viewed and reacted to them.”
In her email to the Daily Campus, Reitz did include the original announcement the University had released in response to Zane’s February arrest. This announcement contains a comment from Maric.
“UConn takes its ethics and compliance responsibilities very seriously, and it is critical that we always hold ourselves and our workforce to the highest standards of accountability,” the comment said. “The university has multiple mechanisms to identify potential issues, including through our Audit and Management Advisory Services unit and the university’s Office of Compliance. The university conducts thorough investigations into potential policy violations and takes appropriate action as needed. That is what happened in this case, and it is also how we continually support a culture of compliance on our campuses.”