CCSU Suspends Professor Ravi Shankar; Senator Says Fire Him [Courant]

August 11, 2015

Hartford Courant

A state senator wants Central Connecticut State University to fire a professor with an extensive criminal history who was promoted while in prison, and the university announced Friday that it had placed the professor on an unpaid suspension as it investigates his latest arrest.

The professor, Ravi Shankar, has a string of arrests and convictions on his record, culminating with his most recent arrest July 29 at a Home Depot in Middletown. Police say he took merchandise totaling $1,339.75, which he had not purchased, and took it to the returns desk for a store credit.

Shankar was charged with third-degree larceny shoplifting for the incident and released on $5,000 bond. He is due in court on those charges Wednesday.

Sen. Kevin Witkos, R-Canton, said that he thinks enough is enough after Shankar’s latest arrest and that CCSU should immediately begin terminating his employment.

“By his continuous disregard for the law, Mr. Shankar has repeatedly demonstrated that he is unfit to discharge his professional responsibilities,” Witkos wrote in a letter Friday to CCSU President Jack Miller. “This professor is harming the reputation of all in the teaching field and quite frankly the administration by its inaction to date.”

Mack McLaughlin, a spokesman for CCSU, said Friday that Miller had received the letter and planned to discuss it with Witkos, and that Shankar had been placed on unpaid administrative suspension as the university investigates his conduct.

“The university has been reviewing this situation since we became aware of it earlier this week,” McLaughlin said.

He said that Witkos’ letter did not lead to Shankar’s suspension, but that the university’s investigation could lead to his termination.

Witkos said Friday afternoon that he was pleased to learn of Shankar’s suspension and confident an investigation would lead to Shankar’s dismissal, but he added that those were steps that CCSU should have already taken.

“I think that’s exactly what should have happened a long time ago, but at least they’re taking action,” Witkos said Friday.

Shankar has two other criminal cases pending in Connecticut, including an arrest for operating a vehicle with a suspended license on Jan. 1 in New Britain and an arrest for evading responsibility in an accident after an incident in December 2014 in Chester. He also has several previous criminal convictions in Connecticut.

Shankar was hired at CCSU in 2002 and was promoted in August 2014 from tenured associate professor to full professor while serving a 90-day pretrial confinement period related to his previous cases.

McLaughlin said that Shankar’s annual salary is $85,191.

Witkos said he proposed a bill earlier this year intended to stop promotions like the one Shankar received by requiring background checks before promoting a professor in the state’s university system The bill did not make it out of the labor and public employees committee.