UMass Amherst loses Roberts in wake of suit

Alasdair Roberts
Alasdairroberts via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0

My friend and colleague Alasdair Roberts (at The Savory Tort), for a short while longer professor of public policy at UMass Amherst, has shared news of his settlement of a lawsuit against the university, and of his retirement.

The settlement announcement came first. Characteristically, Professor Roberts told the story better than I could, so I will embed here his LinkedIn posts. 

Professor Roberts soon thereafter announced his retirement from UMass Amherst, still with characteristic aplomb.

I am indebted to Professor Roberts for stalwart collegiality. In my 15 years working at UMass Law School, located near a smaller, regional campus in the UMass system, Roberts is the only faculty member at the flagship Amherst campus to show, at least to me, the least interest in the work of the law school. More than the least: when I asked him to join my classes via Zoom, he twice insisted on making the two-hour drive to join us in person.

I fear, with regret, that Professor Roberts's experience with his campus, while disappointing, should not be surprising. I would not expect a university employer nor most academic colleagues to go to the mat for me. The work environment with both my law school employers has rather been one in which people are preoccupied, perhaps fairly, with not themselves being the next persons thrown under the bus. Professor Roberts managed a remarkable record of collegiality and productivity despite those grinding wheels.

I add an apt reaction, which I wholly share, to the latter LinkedIn post. New Zealand freedom-of-information consultant Andrew Ecclestone, Proactively Open, wrote: "It's too often the case that when someone with integrity butts up against an institution that has inherent incentives to compromise on its own integrity, the person with integrity ends up bearing a disproportionate share of the costs of that encounter. Those who know you and who have benefitted from your decades of outstanding scholarship and your friendship know your integrity is beyond reproach."

I can't wait to learn from Professor Roberts's next book.