University of Colorado Denver Assistant Counselor Megan Clark Lied When CU Fired Prof. Greg Cronin for Working with Haitians

A Lesson for Attorneys

9/2/20243 min read

The University of Colorado stooped to basement levels during the process of firing tenured Professor Greg Cronin. CU lied and made repeated racist decisions, such as claiming that the teaching of Black students isn't really teaching. CU Assistant Counselor Megan Clark lied for her client the University of Colorado Denver when she spoke to the Regents of Colorado. The Regents accepted the lies as truth, even though Ms. Clark's presentation contradicted the truthful testimony of Prof. Cronin,. The Regents also violated their own rules and Colorado Law when firing Prof. Cronin. CU should not be allowed to police itself until integrity is restored to its counsel and leadership.

Prof. Cronin repeatedly informed the University of Colorado that research and teaching with Black colleagues and students should be valued as much as research and teaching with White colleagues and students. However, Chair John Swallow, Dean Pamela Jansma, and President Mark Kennedy repeatedly denigrated Dr. Cronin's research and teaching accomplishments with Black colleagues as "personal extracurricular activities or humanitarian service". Megan Clark joined this racist bandwagon with “his [Cronin’s] incapability of distinguishing between his personal extracurricular activities (such as appearing in a music video about handwashing) and a professional research activity (such as an objective evaluation of the impact his musical PSA had on the spread of disease)”.

Dr. Cronin’s use of the arts in his transdisciplinary scholarship is innovative and effective. The method literally saved lives during a cholera epidemic and could have saved more lives during the pandemic if Prof. John Swallow and Diana Tomback had not caused a peer-reviewed publication to be retracted. Megan Clark’s above quote is a racist dig at the following music video PSA that educated Haitians about Covid-19: https://youtu.be/BPSFA_R_IQI. Dr. Cronin is an expert in transdisciplinary scholarship who believes a Haitian hospital director who testified that the music video PSAs saved lives. John Swallow refused to believe this hospital director and Ms. Clark ignored his testimony, perhaps because the hospital director is Black. Ms. Clark also minimized Dr. Cronin’s role as “appearing in a music video about handwashing”. While it is true that Prof. Cronin appeared in the music video with his Haitian wife and promoted the life-saving practice of hand-washing, Ms. Clark fails to acknowledge that this work stems from the creation of award winning music schools, a grant to build a recording studio and school in Haiti, peer-reviewed publications, involvement in creating the PSA, and an award that Prof. Cronin received from the Colorado Music Business Organization. Vice Chancellor for Research Dick Traystman understood the importance of Dr. Cronin's work when he wrote "Hi Greg, I would like to highlight your research in my “Research Tips” newsletter. I would appreciate it if you could send me a 200-300 word summary of your research and a head shot photo. I hope you are willing to participate in this task. Thank you. Dick T. Richard J. Traystman, PhD"

Megan Clark enables racism, discrimination, and retaliation at CU. She was untruthful when she told the Regents of Colorado "All of Dr. Cronin’s complaints of discrimination have been considered. None have merit." All of Dr. Cronin's complaint's had merit, but the Office of Equity failed to investigate them. Dr. Cronin offered to voluntarily leave CU if the Office of Equity provided a copy of a single investigation into his numerous complaints. The Office of Equity could not provide a report because they never carried out an investigation. They only sent excuses for why they refused to investigate.

It is ironic and hypocritical that Megan Clark argued that Prof. Cronin was incompetent in his work given the level of incompetence she demonstrated while representing the University of Colorado. Ms. Clark worked well in the comfort of the biased kangaroo court run by her employer University of Colorado. However, she floundered after entering the federal court system. Dr. Cronin found Ms. Clark's motion to dismiss his federal case to be amateur and ridiculous, noting that Ms. Clark apparently is incapable of distinguishing between tenured and non-tenured faculty. It is also extraordinary that Ms. Clark settled “Cronin v. University of Colorado Board of Regents et al” without including a non-disclosure agreement or a non-disparagement clause. CUDenverLynx.com would not be able to share much of its content if Ms. Clark had included these clauses in the settlement. Other attorneys could learn from Ms. Clark’s questionable choices by (1) not insulting the competence of experts and by (2) including non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses in settlements. Dr. Cronin recommends that other unfairly terminated employees reject settlement clauses that silence victims. Freedom to share information such as that disseminated at CU DenverLynx.com can reduce racism, discrimination, bullying, and other unethical practices of powerful employers such as CU.