Prof Fired for Depositing Student Payments in His Account

Do-it-yourself tuition collection by professors apparently doesn't go over well at Florida Gulf Coast University. The Fort Myers News-Press reported that the university has fired a professor, Donald Lounsbury, after an audit found that he had collected cash and checks from students for payments for his interview and interrogation criminal justice courses and deposited them directly in his own account, not a university account. Citing documents obtained through public records requests, the News-Press reported that Lounsbury defended the practice by saying that he was simply expediting the process by which he would have later been reimbursed for supplies he purchased and payments he would be owed for teaching the courses. In November, he was suspended, and later placed on unpaid leave for a period, after students reported that he touched anatomically accurate mannequins in a sexual manner. The mannequins were part of a class on investigating deaths. Lounsbury's lawyer said that some students would contest the charges related to the mannequins and that his client's firing suggests that he has "political enemies at the university."