Associate Professor William Kordsmeier has been suspended from teaching pending a formal investigation into allegations he hit a student with a marker during class, college of business Dean Pat Cantrell said.

“This has turned into a personnel matter,” Cantrell said. “After we saw the police report and [Kordsmeier’s] comments, we decided to suspend him. We are thinking of the students.”

Student Cesar Francisco Orea said Kordsmeier hit him with a marker during his business statistics class on Jan. 25. Orea said after throwing the marker at him, Kordsmeier told him and another student to leave the class.

Orea filed a police report against the professor after the incident.

Cantrell said because a police report involving a student and a teacher was filed, university provost Gabriel Esteban is involved with the incident and will report his findings to President Lu Hardin.

While no formal complaint has been filed against Kordsmeier for this incident, Kordsmeier does have at least one other formal complaint against him in his personnel file, Cantrell said.

In order for a complaint against a professor to become formal, a student has to put the complaint in writing and submit it to the dean of the department, Cantrell said.

“It’s pretty rare,” she said.

Cantrell said she has not had a formal complaint against a professor in her college since becoming dean four years ago. Because the formal complaint against Kordsmeier was issued before Cantrell became dean, she wouldn’t comment as to the nature of the complaint.

Attempts by The Echo to obtain copies of Kordsmeier’s personnel record through the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act have so far been unsuccessful.

“If there have been any previous complaints against Dr. Kordsmeier, he has never been suspended or terminated,” Vice President for Administration Jack Gillean wrote in a letter to The Echo. “Therefore, any such personnel record would not be subject to disclosure as noted above. Moreover … with respect to any conduct that is currently under review, no final administrative resolution has been reached. Your request to inspect and copy Dr. Kordsmeier’s personnel file is denied.”

Other students enrolled in the business statistics class where Orea was hit with the marker described the incident differently than Orea did in his UCAPD report.

“We came to class, getting things ready, and Dr. Kordsmeier was trying to get everyone’s attention,” Jacob Schuterman said. “[Orea] was disrupting the class and Kordsmeier was just trying to get his attention. [Orea] was clearly disrupting the class and was disrespecting the teacher. It just got blown out of proportion.”

Kasey White, another student in the class, described the incident similarly.

“[Kordsmeier] was trying to get [Orea’s] attention and [Orea] was still talking to a girl,” White said. “My friend was sitting a few rows down from [Orea] and he couldn’t even hear the teacher ’cause [Orea] was being loud.”

Both Schuterman and White said they believed Orea was out of line.

White said: “Because of the situation and the school you’re in, you can’t do things like [throw a marker at a student]. But at the same time, [Orea] could have been a little more respectful towards the teacher and not turn the story around the way he did. He couldn’t think he could talk through a lecture when all the other people had to be quiet.”

Schuterman said he agreed.

“[Orea] was more out of line than the teacher,” Schuterman said.