University Corruption
Dr. Sabina Burton was unfairly fired.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.- Martin Luther King Jr.'
Dr. Burton was a tenured professor at UW Platteville, and is a mother of two young ladies who graduated from the UW System. One of her female students brought to her attention an act that appeared to be sexual harassment by a male professor. Burton brought the matter to the attention of then Dean Elizabeth Throop, for which Burton received retaliation from her department chair, Dr. Caywood. She filed a grievance regarding the retaliation and her grievance was heard by a properly formed grievance committee. The committee found in Burton's favor, but their findings were "changed" by the administration to make it appear that Burton was equally at fault as her harasser. The grievance committee sent a recommendation to the Chancellor which highlights the sexual harassment issue. The findings regarding the sexual harassment of the student disappeared and nothing seems to have been done to the sexual harasser of the student, except that he got a new job at a new university with nothing in his record regarding this incident. Like a puff of smoke, suddenly the student victim of sexual harassment was no longer a victim. The attorney covered it up so the university could report that it had zero incidents of sexual harassment.
Dr. Burton received more retaliation and filed more grievances, but she was never given another fair grievance hearing as required by policy. Instead, Chancellor Shields initiated dismissal proceedings against Burton based on fabrications. The proceedings violated policy, state law, and federal law in many ways. Burton alleges felony forgery and perjury, among many other violations of her due process and first amendment rights. Read the timeline for specifics.
We are petitioning the Faculty Senate of UW Platteville to conduct an open investigation into the violations of Dr. Burton's due process rights regarding her grievances and her appeal. We are asking that the hearings be open to the pubic and advertised to ensure all interested parties are aware of the hearings. The faculty senate's findings should lead to Dr. Burton's reinstatement because clearly, her due process rights were violated.
Click Here to Sign Petition
As a symbolic gesture we are petitioning to get the last word of the UW Platteville Alma Mater song changed from "Loyalty" to "Integrity."
Click Here to Sign Petition
We are also petitioning to get the employees of the UW System to provide union representation so the universities stop firing good teachers for political reasons and replacing them with cronies.
Click Here to Sign Petition
Ever Wonder why so many girls get raped in college?
This story shows how UW Platteville, led by then Chancellor Dennis J. Shields, covered up a case of sexual harassment, harassed and fired Dr. Burton, and violated her due process rights and first amendment rights in the process. Let's fix this problem together. Please sign the petitions below:
Require the UW Platteville faculty senate to review the grievance and appeal hearing processes that led to Dr. Burton’s dismissal to determine whether any rules and/or laws were violated.
If the Faculty Senate determines that any rules were broken they should send a recommendation to the Chancellor, and the Chancellor should send a recommendation to the Board of Regents requesting that Dr. Burton receive an apology and be reinstated to her position, with back pay.
Help us get Dr. Burton back in a classroom where she belongs. Let her teach your kids about critical thinking and spearhead a revolution in ethics in education.
The last word of the UW Platteville Alma Mater song is “Loyalty.” Let’s change it to “integrity.” This will help bring awareness to corruption and demonstrate that citizens, students, and faculty want administration officials to value truth and honor over loyalty to corrupt officials.
We want to help re-invigorate a strong teacher’s union for the UW System. Employees need it. You cannot expect the administration to follow the rules. You need a union to ensure they do. Rules are pointless, in a corrupt environment, without enforcement.
Why Are We Doing This?
The current state of government in America warrants resistance, not only to high level politicians, but also to lower level authorities. Let’s identify liars and get them out of every level of politics, starting with the schools that shape the minds of our youth. This is something each of us can do. Sign a petition.
This is a simple way to punch up! Make them blink at lower levels and push the momentum to higher levels. We fought this battle alone while observers were justifiably afraid of losing their jobs if they questioned authority. We lost because we were alone. We are trying it again, hoping for grass roots support. Please sign the petitions and help us right the ship.
Why Are We Doing This?
Shields responded: “… a meeting has been scheduled …this petition started without the respect and courtesy of speaking with me directly… some of the supposed facts surrounding the efforts made by the university to address the issue of sexual assault … are either incomplete or inaccurate. There have been a number of actions taken by the university under my leadership to address these issues… in my view the petition was started without the effort to be fully informed …. The lack of any effort to contact me directly before engaging … creates an opportunity to learn…”
This is an example of the vague and intimidating double speak we also got from then Chancellor Shields. Sounds a bit like our current national leadership, doesn’t it. Higher level corruption allows and protects lower level corruption. Lower level corruption mimics higher level corruption. We want to root out corruption from all levels, starting at UW Platteville.
Why Are We Doing This?
We spent over a half million dollars of our personal nest egg to battle this in court. We took our first lawsuit to the US Supreme Court, but they did not review it. The establishment tries to keep dissenters isolated and bleed them of their resources, sanity, and health.
We were outgunned the whole way. We took on the Attorney General Pro Se because we ran out of money after hiring five different attorneys at various times. The system is designed to make it impossible for a weaker party to prevail.
We learned between 2012 and 2019 what the rest of America is learning now, that corrupt officials do not play fair, and you cannot win if you are alone. It requires a community coming together to support one another.
We know of two other female professors who were abused this way, and both of their husbands died, largely because of the stress. One of the professors told me, with intense sincerity, that the university “murdered” her husband with stress. I believe her.
Why Are We Doing This?
Initially, we fought because we wanted to protect young women in colleges from sexual harassment and rape. But our efforts uncovered severe corruption. This corruption is what fuels not only rape, but wealth inequality, racism, fascism, and all manner of other isms. Corruption destroyed the environment at Chernobyl. It will destroy the entire world if good people do nothing.
We are entering perilous times. We have a small window of opportunity to effect change to get corruption out of government. It is time to push this matter and make it public. Please share this website with your friends and sign the petitions.
You can see the story and all our evidence on our Public Timeline.
This timeline contains hyperlinks to evidence we collected to prove each statement. There are a number of broken links currently. I will try to fix them as time goes on. If there is a document you would like to see – let me know and I’ll try to get it to you.
Roger Burton, Dr. Burton’s husband, built this website and the timelines. Timelines are generally written in first person as though Dr. Sabina Burton were speaking, but it was written by me, her husband. Files in the private section are not available to the public. If you would like to see a file with “priv” in the url let me know an I will see if I can release it to you.
What about the Chancellor's charge that Burton violated an "Expectation of Trust" by making audio recordings public?
Let’s examine what the administration considers to be its strongest argument. You can find all through their documentation, references to the audio recordings Dr. Burton made of DRB meetings and her disclosure of things that she was not “reasonably expected” to make public. See the Chancellor’s statement of charges: (sburtonstatementofcharges3-30-17). Burton’s rebuttal to the statement of charges: (sburtonstmtofchrgs-Rebuttal-3-30-17). Of particular importance is the DRB meeting of 1-14-14. The university was protecting the sexual harasser. The university was protecting the Chancellor. The university was covering up the sexual harassment of a student by a male professor. We are doing the opposite. We are attempting to protect students from sexual predators and to expose corruption in the administration of the university. Had the DRB meeting had been conducted fairly, in accordance with policy and law, then Dr. Burton wouldn’t have had to record the meetings at all. She recorded them because she knew there would be violations of her rights and the rights of the student victim of sexual harassment. She was right. That’s why I uploaded the audios to UniversityCorruption.com.
Wisconsin law allows one party consent for making recordings. There was no requirement for her to get permission from anyone, other than herself, to make these recordings. See Wisconsin State Statute 968.31(2)). There is no law or policy or rule or any other written guideline or code which would prevent her from disclosing these audio recordings. Even the Board of Regents agreed that Dr. Burton did not violate any laws. See (Board-Regents-decision-6-8-18) page 15 where the Board states “there is no assertion that Dr. Burton violated the law.” Neither was there any assertion that Burton violated any written rule or policy. They did not find “just cause” to fire her. Here is our rebuttal to the Board's decision to fire Dr. Burton: (Board-Regents-decision-6-8-18-Rebuttal).
If then Chancellor Shields believed the evidence was so strong against Dr. Burton, why not give her opportunity to address the evidence in a FAIR hearing?
Because Dr. Burton was protected by whistleblower law.
Because Chancellor Shields couldn't allow Dr. Burton to win the appeal. Allowing her a fair hearing would have meant he would not have been able to fire her, and that would have been bad for the Chancellor's career. He may have had to face a felony conviction, or two. It is the same thing going on now with MAGA. Trump cannot allow a fair election because he will lose, and this would be bad for his career. Trump may be brought up on charges such as the Nuremberg trials. Shields is a little Trump. My hope is that when Trump's regime falls, hopefully soon, people like Trump and Shields will be held accountable and a new wave of integrity and fairness will spread across America. God help us if it doesn't. We believe that fighting back against low level corruption will hasten the fall of the oligarchs and set the stage for restructuring our political landscape. If Americans lose against Trump we will likely lose in our efforts to get Dr. Burton her job back. But if we get her job back we are a little more likely to win the big fight too.
Because she would have proven that the allegations against her were an attempt to cover up grievous violations of policy and law on the part of the administration, including Chancellor Shields.
Because the evidence provided by the university itself proves that Dr. Burton was assaulted in the DRB meeting to keep her quiet. She was shushed when she tried to discuss the sexual harassment allegations against the professor involved. She was thumped on her leg to get her to shut up. You can hear the thumping in the audio recording. (Audio Exhibit A4). You can tell that Dr. Burton was not allowed to speak in the DRB meeting. You can discern that she was clearly not treated fairly in evaluations of her own performance. She was attempting to protect female students from someone she considered to be a sexual predator and to gain fair treatment for herself, but she was not allowed to speak. (see (UW Platteville’s “Exhibits and Materials submitted into record) pages 41, 71, 320, 350).
If the meetings were so sensitive to privacy expectations why are there no written laws or policies regarding them?
Wisconsin Open Meetings Law protects Dr. Burton, not the other way around. The chair of such meetings is required to "Close" the meeting if the information discussed is sensitive. If the chair fails to close the meeting it is "Open," which means it is public. The chair did not close any of the meetings Burton recorded. You can see in the transcript below that the meetings were not closed. If the information offered in the meeting is sensitive and it gets published, it is the chair of the meeting who should take the hit, not the person who is prevented from speaking.
If the audios are so sensitive, why did Chancellor Shields publish the transcripts of the meetings on the record of this case with NO REDACTIONS?
See UW Platteville’s “Exhibits and Materials submitted into record.” See particularly the exhibits regarding the transcript and other references to the audio titled “A4.” Do a search for “A4” (pages 48, 69, 71, 140, 327, 348, 350). Also search for the word “thump” to see the parts of the audio recording transcript which proves Burton was assaulted in the meeting. (pages 41, 71, 320, 350).
Because the allegation against Burton that she violated some unwritten rule against such publications was pretext for the real reasons they fired her.
What were the real reasons they fired Dr. Burton?
She forwarded a report of sexual harassment of a student by a male faculty member;
She complained of retaliation for her advocacy of the student, and
She complained of the retaliation against herself.
Dr. Burton is protected by Whistleblower Law. But this law is no protection at all unless she gets public support for her case to be heard fairly.
If publishing the audios online was a reason for firing Dr. Burton why did the Board's attorneys say this:?
"[Dr. Burton] has every right to post documents that have been publicly filed in federal court on the Internet." (c2-Dkt-61-Brief-Rebuttal).
All of the audios used as evidence to fire Dr. Burton had been filed in federal court before I published them online. So the Board's own attorneys argue that the justification for the Board firing Burton was not valid. But she was never given opportunity to demonstrate this in a fair hearing.
Please sign the petition to help us get Dr. Burton a fair hearing.
Dr. Roter, former chancellor of UW Whitewater, conducted the investigation into the allegations against Dr. Burton. Dr. Burton tried to asked for Dr. Roter to sign the investigation report to prove she wrote it, but Roter had vanished. She ghosted us. We asked that the investigator come to the appeal hearing so we could demonstrate the fallacy of the report, but Dr. Roter never showed up. The university probably never gave her the request. She never answered any of our emails. We were not given any opportunity to show that the report was not written by Dr. Roter. If it was written by her then she committed a grave injustice. Go to the Public Timeline and search for “Roter” to get the story. Listen to the audio of the investigation meeting and compare it to the investigation report.
(A41a-PetraRoter-Burton-interview-transcript).
(A41-PetraRoter-Burton-interview-2-9-17-Pt1) (A41-PetraRoter-Burton-interview-2-9-17-Pt2)
(RoterInvestigationReport-3-4-17) Keep in mind that we allege that this report was not written by Dr. Roter, but that Chancellor Shields altered Roter’s original report to support his recommendation to the UW System Board of Regents that Dr. Burton be fired. This is an allegation of felony forgery, which we do not make lightly or without evidence. Here is our rebuttal to the fraudulent (and likely forged) report: Rebuttal-RoterReport3-4-17.
If anyone knows where Dr. Roter is please put us in contact with her. Maybe we can set the record straight with a simple discussion. The faculty senate should contact her as part of their investigation and ask her to verify the report’s authenticity and answer why she created such a biased report, under oath, if she did write it. My guess is that she will refuse to talk about it at all. She will try to hide. We should not let her hide. She can prove Chancellor Shields committed fraud, forgery, and perjury simply by verifying that she did not write the report. Does anyone know where Dr. Petra Roter is?
We support John Rindy for Wisconsin State Assembly District 49. www.johnrindyforwisconsin.com.
Thank you for bringing this to light. The strength and courage to continue to fight back against the system so outrageously corrupt that it shocks the conscious. May God bless you as you continue to forge ahead. Words cannot express the respect, admiration, and empathy, hugs and much love!
Thank you Sheila,
As you know, the problem my wife, Dr. Sabina Burton, faces is systemic, and nationwide. Our battle affects not only UW Platteville, but every university in the University of Wisconsin System. We cannot fight them alone anymore. Your support means a lot to us.
We hope to make a difference in this world so maybe the human race will last one more day before it destroys itself. If we all make a little difference for the better maybe humanity will overcome. We hope so. We believe regional battles, like my wife’s and yours are necessary to change the political landscape and get better qualified, more honest, and more caring leadership into mid level and high places. Corruption has a way of promoting corruption and dismissing quality and integrity. Bullies target the highly qualified, like Dr. Burton. Left unchecked, corruption will always take over. Sometimes gradually, other times in leaps and bounds. It’s human nature. We need to fight against it to preserve and protect a future for our children.
Thanks again,
Roger Burton
Retired USMC Major, Harrier Pilot, Gulf War Veteran
I was given a hand-out walking back from the protest the Capitol. Our daughter lives in OK & she has noted the corruption regarding sexual harassment & rape there. Given the Epstein cover-up & the political atmosphere regarding women’s rights, I fully support what your doing.
Mary Neuhaus
Thank you Mary,
We have found this sort of corruption to be a national, systemic problem. It is not limited to UW Platteville or the UW System. I hope to make UniversityCorruption.com into a place where victims of such abuse in all universities across America will be able to air their grievances to gain support. We found out the hard way that gaining support locally, when all the other employees and students are at risk of losing their own jobs, is a difficult and possibly impossible task in such a corrupt environment. Support must come from within, but it must also come from without the local universities to be effective. In our situation there were at least two and possibly four or five people who were fired because they supported Dr. Burton. Many more were threatened against supporting her. We purposely stopped trying to include others in our battle because we did not want more people to lose their jobs supporting Dr. Burton. We hoped the courts would be fair, but we were wrong. Now, we are trying to gain support through petitions, hoping that numbers will protect us as well as our local supporters. Thanks for your support. Please pass along our website to others.
Roger Burton
Retired USMC Major, Harrier Pilot, Gulf War Veteran