Ousted Temple provost calls harassment allegations 'slander'

Two weeks after he was abruptly dismissed as provost of Temple University - and a day after school officials revealed that they were investigating a sexual harassment complaint against him - Hai-Lung Dai decried the allegations as "complete and utter fabrications."

"I will not rest or retreat until I have pursued every avenue available to me, including through a court of law, to restore my good name," Dai said in a statement Wednesday.

On June 28, without explanation, Temple president Neil D. Theobald announced that he had removed Dai.

On Tuesday, Temple's board said it intended to dismiss Theobald, blaming him for his handling of Dai's removal and a $22 million deficit in the school's financial aid budget for merit scholarships.

The sexual harassment complaint against Dai was made public Tuesday by a spokesman for the board of trustees, who said Theobald had mentioned it in an email to university officials this week.

In his statement, Dai insisted that there was no connection between the sexual harassment allegation and his dismissal. In fact, he said, the complaint was not filed until after Theobald told him he wanted him to leave the post.

The alleged misconduct, which he described as "of a verbal nature," occurred more than six years ago, he said, and involved a subordinate whom he had disciplined for "performance failures."

"My accuser never complained of any inappropriate conduct by me until well after I had disciplined her as part of a well-documented corrective process," Dai said in the statement provided by his lawyer, Patricia Pierce. "Those corrective measures were taken in consultation with Temple's department of human resources and its legal counsel."

Pierce said in a statement Wednesday that Dai had been "publicly maligned" and called that "unconscionable."

She said the university investigation of the allegations against Dai was intended to be confidential. By making it public, she said, Temple officials violated their own rules and acted with "malice and ill will."

ssnyder@phillynews.com

215-854-4693@ssnyderinq