UF's lawyers have responded to claims of racial and sexual discrimination made in a lawsuit earlier this year by former associate professor of law Sherrie Russell-Brown.
In documents filed Friday and Monday, UF denies it discriminated against her and asks the court to dismiss the case.
In her lawsuit, Russell-Brown, who is black, alleges UF fostered a hostile atmosphere that resulted in harassment by students and faculty and that the university ultimately forced her from her job.
In one instance, she alleges she was talking with a black student when a male colleague hit her from behind, pushing her into the classroom's whiteboard as class was about to start and students were taking their seats.
In another, she says a white male student in one of her classes sent her a threatening e-mail the day after the Virginia Tech killings. The e-mail stated there would be something waiting for her when she arrived at the classroom, leading her to cancel the last day of class, according to the lawsuit.
She alleges faculty members were told to avoid her and that UF forced her to leave in retaliation for submitting discrimination complaints.
Her lawsuit was first filed in Alachua County in February then re-filed in New Jersey, where she lives, in May.
In its response to the lawsuit, UF states that if students or faculty avoided or harassed her it was done without its knowledge or approval.
UF alleges Russell-Brown resigned willingly after she was told her contract would not be renewed.
In court documents, Bob Jerry, dean of the law school, states the university wanted to let her go because she could not be relied on to teach her assigned classes.
Jerry asserts that Russell-Brown e-mailed him about a week before the start of classes in the fall of 2007 informing him that she had an "unexpected illness" and that she couldn't teach the first week of class.
Jerry asked her to report back to him in a few days to let him know if she would be able to fulfill her teaching obligations for the semester, UF's response alleges.
When she didn't report back and attempts to contact her failed, the law school reassigned her class, according to the response.
After a series of e-mails and phone calls, the law school offered her another class that would start in late September. She declined, stating there wasn't enough time left to properly teach the class.
However, she offered to teach the class in the spring and proposed a class description that included four essays and no class meetings.
UF alleges that the law school found this unacceptable and yet she continued to try to avoid face-to-face teaching.
"Face-to-face teaching of students was an essential function of Russell-Brown's position," Jerry states in court documents.
The lawsuit notes that Russell-Brown was living in Plainfield, New Jersey at the time.
By the end of September, when Russell-Brown had still not met with the dean about her situation and had not turned in proper medical documentation to excuse her from work, Jerry states the school decided not to renew her contract, which resulted in her resignation.
According to court documents, Russell-Brown put the school in a similar situation in 2005 when, a week before fall classes, she informed the law school she couldn't teach that semester because of a medical condition.
She was living in England at the time, working on a degree in public international law at the University of Oxford.
A medical form filed with UF in the fall of 2007 indicates she began experiencing irregular heartbeats and chest pain in 2005.
Russell-Brown resigned from UF effective Dec. 31, 2007. She received almost $121,000 in compensation, totaling more than a year's worth of salary and health benefits.
She also agreed not to file any lawsuits or other complaints against UF for incidents that occurred before the contract was signed, which UF alleges should be grounds for dismissal of the suit.
Her lawsuit seeks monetary compensation and reinstatement at UF.
UF officials declined to comment, citing university policy that prevents them from talking about ongoing lawsuits.
On Tuesday, a statement from the dean about diversity was posted on the law school's Web site.
"(T)he measure of an institution or a community is not the isolated acts of behavior of one or a few members of that community…," Jerry's statement reads.
"Like any responsible institution, we investigate any incidents of alleged discrimination brought to our attention and, while every allegation is not true, if it is we respond appropriately," it says.
Russell-Brown's attorney, John Beranbaum, declined to comment when reached by e-mail Wednesday.
