Former University Catholic Chaplain William J. Wallace, known by the University community as Father Bill, filed a civil lawsuit on Oct. 23, 2023 against the University related to his termination as chaplain in June 2022. The seven counts included state whistleblower retaliation; state free speech retaliation; federal religious discrimination; state religious discrimination; state age discrimination; state fair-employment violations; and a hostile work environment.
Wallace, 75, said the road to his firing began in July 2020, five years into his career at Wesleyan, when he got an email informing him that former University Muslim Chaplain Omar Bayramoglu was departing from his job amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Wallace was surprised, and subsequently reached out to Bayramoglu to confirm that he was leaving his position.
“I sent him an email and I said, ‘Omar, I’m so sorry to hear you’re going, I had no idea. You know, the director [of the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life (ORSL), Rabbi David Leipziger Teva], he doesn’t tell me anything,’” Wallace said. “And he writes back and says, ‘What are you talking about?’ I said, ‘Well, did you see this email?’ And he said, ‘No.’ So we got on the phone, I sent him the email. And he couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe it. He said, ‘I had just told them that I planned on coming back.’”
The termination was part of the University’s plan during the pandemic to cut back on their budget by minimizing ORSL, namely by reducing the number of chaplains from four to one. Initially, Wallace expressed his disagreement with the plan privately to University administration, but in October 2020 he published an op-ed in The Argus. In it, he publicly criticized the move, emphasizing ORSL’s services to the community, particularly in a time of anxiety and uncertainty.
“Having healthy spiritual personnel and resources on campus has significant academic and civic benefits, benefits that far outweigh their minimal cost savings,” Wallace wrote in the 2020 article.
Soon thereafter, the University changed course and committed to a search for a new full-time Muslim chaplain, which began in the summer of 2021. Wallace says he was deliberately excluded from the search committee as a result of his earlier dissent and in spite of his experience interviewing in former academic positions, as well as during his 30-year tenure as an assistant district attorney and special assistant attorney general in New York.
“People in the general public, police officers, attorneys, people who were accused of a crime, hardcore criminals, I interviewed them,” said Wallace. “So I probably had the most experience and most expertise when it came to interviewing. I also would have been the person who would have been working most closely with the new Muslim chaplain.”
The six-month search ended with the University offering the position to someone who had been charged with assaulting a student while serving as a substitute teacher at a Massachusetts public school in 2012. The offer was rescinded, and the position has subsequently been filled.
In the fall of 2021, Wallace received his first negative written performance review, and later got a Performance Improvement Plan from Vice President for Student Affairs Michael Whaley. This was despite a meeting in the summer of 2021, in which Whaley praised Wallace and thanked him for his contributions to the community.
“For the first six years, my evaluations always met expectations or exceeded expectations,” Wallace said. “I suddenly get an evaluation that says I’m deficient, that I needed improvement. Isn’t that interesting? What does that tell you? You know, for the first six years, all positive, all glowing. And then all of a sudden, not to my face, they put it in a document saying that I’m deficient. To my face, they tell me, ‘You’re doing a great job!’ And just a few days later, they write me up for not being a team member.”
Wallace was fired on June 8, 2022, not long after the commencement of the class of 2022, where he gave the benediction. He was shocked and disappointed by the dismissal.
“This was not a voluntary withdrawal on my part from the University,” Wallace said. “They called me in on June the 8th. And they immediately told me that, effective immediately, I was no longer an employee at the University. I did not choose to walk away from this position, and I think that’s very important to emphasize.”
Wallace eventually filed a lawsuit in the fall of 2023, saying that he considered his termination to be unfair and that he wanted the community to know that he committed no wrongdoing.
“I consider my firing to be very unfair, unjust, and illegal, and that’s the reason why I’m bringing this lawsuit,” Wallace said. “I want to hold people who are responsible for my firing accountable. To me, truth matters, and doing the right thing matters. And I want people to know the truth. I want people to know that I have nothing to hide, that I did the right thing.”
The University declined to comment on Wallace’s termination or lawsuit, as the University does not comment on pending litigation.
Wallace said he had a strong positive reputation with students over his seven years as Catholic chaplain.
“I had an outstanding reputation at Wesleyan, and a large following, not just of Catholics or members of the Catholic community, but of students from diverse religious traditions and backgrounds,” Wallace said. “I was there as the University Catholic chaplain, but I ministered not just to the Catholics, but to the Protestants, Jews, and Muslims, and anyone else who needed help. I was their advocate. And I always said, I work for the students, not for the people in the ivory tower. That’s why I’m there.”
Since his firing, multiple students have published articles in The Argus criticizing the dismissal and calling for his return. Wallace said he is still in contact with many members of the Wesleyan community.
“I’m in regular communication with a lot of students—[both] graduates and present students,” Wallace said. “I meet with them frequently in New York and Boston. I’m scheduled to do a wedding of two Wesleyan graduates out in Chicago this October. I’m scheduled to go out to Chicago another time for the graduation of a PhD candidate. A number of students on campus will reach out to me.”
Christa Ishimwe ’23 MA’24, a member of the Catholic Student Organization at Wesleyan during Wallace’s time at the University, said she has stayed in touch with Wallace.
“Once in a while, I get lunch with him,” Ishimwe said. “He has also a sister and a niece, who also became my friends, too. So once in a while, we have a meal together, or something. Sometimes [we] celebrate Mass at St. Mary’s, or St. Sebastian’s. So I get to see him then.”
Ishimwe said she got to know Wallace during her first year, in the fall of 2019. It was the first time she had left her home country of Burundi, and being part of a Catholic community was important to her.
“When I got admitted to Wesleyan, and knew that I was definitely going to come, the first thing I tried to do was to go on the Wesleyan website, and then try to search if they had any Catholic community, because I felt like that would be the closest thing to what I know from home,” Ishimwe said. “And when I googled, I saw that they had a Catholic chaplain: Father Bill.”
Wallace was Ishimwe’s First Year Matters discussion facilitator during New Student Orientation. She found a sense of community in this experience, and became friends with others in the Catholic Student Organization. The University has remained without a Catholic chaplain since Wallace’s dismissal, and in addition to not having his presence on campus, Ishimwe lamented the fact that Catholic services can no longer be provided on campus.
“Knowing that I was not going to have [Mass] for the rest of my life at Wesleyan was disappointing, and [it has been] hard to build [community] when there’s no priest,” Ishimwe said. “For Catholics, the main thing that brings us together is Mass, and Mass cannot be celebrated without a priest.”
Wallace now works in the Middletown area, recently covering for the priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Portland, Conn., and leading Mass at regional Catholic schools. However, his dismissal led to financial difficulty for him, his sister, and his niece, both of whom live with him. It also affected his reputation in the local community.
“In our society today, in our culture today, when people hear that a priest has been suspended or removed, or is ‘disappeared,’ the immediate reaction is, ‘Well, what did he do? Is he guilty of sexual misconduct?’” Wallace said. “And this is particularly so after the sexual abuse crisis in the Church. A lot of people raised that question.”
The lawsuit was originally filed at the State of Connecticut Superior Court in Middletown, but was moved to federal court in New Haven, and will likely be tried. Wallace hopes that his suit will vindicate his record of service.
“It’s important to me, you know. The truth matters,” Wallace said. “I don’t want to sweep it under the rug. And I don’t want people to think I did something wrong, because I didn’t. I’m proud of my ministry.”
Spencer Landers can be reached at sklanders@wesleyan.edu.