University to pay $100,000 to professor

VALDOSTA - Valdosta State University has agreed to pay $100,000 as part of a settlement with a biology instructor and local NAACP president whose teaching contract was not renewed. <br> <br> Leigh Touchton agreed to relinquish all claims against either the Board of Regents or the university, but the March 19 settlement does not alter the university&#39;s decision to terminate her contract. <br> <br> Touchton, the first white woman to head the Valdosta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, claimed she was being terminated because of past disputes with university officials and her political activism, including work with the Living Wage Campaign, a campus group seeking better compensation for hourly employees at the university. <br> <br> Burns Newsome, assistant chancellor for legal affairs with the University System of Georgia, said the Board was pleased with the outcome of the negotiations ``because the biology department at Valdosta State University needed to get beyond Leigh Touchton&#39;s disputes with the university to do what it needs to do.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Louis Levy, acting vice president of academic affairs at VSU, said in November that Touchton was not fired. ``These positions are based on the needs of the university at that particular time. We are simply not going to issue her a new contract,&#39;&#39; Levy said. <br> <br> Touchton, who is expecting a baby in June, has held her position in the biology department since August 1999. Among other claims, she alleged curtailment of her First Amendment rights and a violation of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.