CCSU pays out $760,000 after loss in Supreme Court

Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) has paid former employee Christopher Dukes $762,525 after losing an arbitration case before the Connecticut Supreme Court, rocketing Dukes to one of the ten highest-paid state employees in 2024, alongside Connecticut’s UConn basketball coaches and top doctors at UConn Health, according to the state’s open data website.

State data shows the university paid its former director of student conduct $720,000 in salary and wages, plus an additional $42,000 in “other pay,” making him the sixth highest-paid state employee in Connecticut for 2024.

The payout came following a decision by the state Supreme Court, which overturned a lower court’s ruling to vacate a 2020 arbitration decision mandating CCSU rehire Dukes and award him back pay. Dukes was terminated in 2018 following an alleged domestic incident at his home and a stand-off with police. CCSU officials argued the circumstances surrounding his arrest made Dukes unsuitable as director of student conduct, which involves investigating instances of abuse and harassment.

Dukes maintained that he never assaulted his former wife, and all charges against him were dropped in 2019, before the arbitration decision. Dukes had been receiving a salary of nearly $120,000 per year before his termination.

Dukes’ firing was overturned by an arbitrator in 2020, but the university took the matter to court and initially had the arbitration decision vacated before the union representing Dukes appealed to the Connecticut Supreme Court, which has upheld arbitration decisions in the past.

Union contracts mandate that both parties abide by an arbitration decision should contractual disputes arise. The decision by the university to contest the arbitration award – even after criminal charges had been dropped – likely added hundreds of thousands to their eventual payout four years later for back wages and legal fees.

The Supreme Court found that CCSU’s code of conduct did not require Dukes to be terminated, that all the criminal charges had been dropped, that the union contract provided for “progressive discipline,” and that there was no public policy violation in reinstating Dukes per the arbitration decision.

Furthermore, according to the Supreme Court decision, during arbitration, the union presented ample evidence that the university had not previously disciplined employees for arrests while they were “off duty,” creating a situation of unequal discipline.

“Indeed, the union presented evidence that at least two university employees were arrested for public indecency, including a professor, the university’s president was arrested for impersonating a police officer, and another employee was arrested for harassment, but none of those employees was disciplined, let alone terminated,” the decision said.

University officials should have been well aware that the court system does not view favorably attempts to overturn the contractual arbitration process. In 2012, a UConn Health employee Gregory Linhoff was found smoking marijuana while at work and subsequently terminated. An arbitrator overturned the termination, but UConn Health took the matter to court, eventually ending up at the Connecticut Supreme Court where they were ordered to rehire Linhoff.

The massive payout to Dukes also comes at a time when Connecticut’s universities and colleges have been raising tuition rates, cutting services, and arguing to the General Assembly that they need more funding after one-time American Rescue Plan (ARPA) dollars dried up.

Lawmakers were able to bolster money to the Connecticut State College and University (CSCU) system by granting them an additional $80 million in remaining ARPA funds, but CCSU and other public universities could find themselves facing an uphill budget battle next year.

While the university maintained that Dukes was terminated because of the police incident, Dukes contended his firing was in retaliation for acting as a whistleblower , trying to bring attention to mishandled harassment and sexual misconduct claims. Some of those claims were only revealed in court documents, despite Freedom of Information requests submitted to CCSU by the student newspaper.

CCSU did not return request for comment.

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