Judge rules against former U of A employee in wrongful termination suit

Clarissa Siebern, a former business manager with UA’s College of Education, had filed the lawsuit in May 2025 against ABOR, which oversees the university, saying the UA wrongfully terminated her in a retaliatory move for “whistleblowing” about college employees’ concerns that they weren’t being paid enough for their workloads.

ABOR had said her employment was terminated due to her “egregious” delays in fulfilling her duty to process payments to a student worker.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Kyle Bryson, in his Aug. 24 ruling, granted ABOR’s motion for summary judgment and ruled against Siebern’s competing motion. He also wrote that he is canceling the trial, which was set for Dec. 8, and “any and all pretrial deadlines and hearings.”

Siebern told the Star on Friday that she intends to file an appeal on Monday.

“Apparently, reporting labor-law violations at a public university is not a matter of public concern,” she told the Star in an email. “I repeatedly reported faculty and students working without proper hiring and I-9 processing and other pay-related violations. Sworn testimony acknowledged these problems existed ‘in other departments and, frankly, in other colleges at the university.’ Yet Judge Kyle Bryson granted ABOR’s motion for summary judgment.”

In his ruling, Bryson said Siebern didn’t show that she intended to disclose any “wrongdoing” under ABOR’s whistleblower policy, and that in order to trigger an investigation into wrongdoing, Siebern or the “disclosing party” needs to make it clear they believed there was wrongdoing.

“The outlines, summaries, and emails (Siebern) has submitted describe everything (she) disclosed to her superiors, and there is no indication Siebern was addressing wrongdoing as contemplated by the policy,” Bryson wrote.

Instead, it appears that Siebern “was simply advocating for her department, as she was required to do as a business manager of her department,” he said. He also said the court couldn’t find anything she disclosed to her superiors that rose to being a matter of public concern.

Siebern “was acting as the liaison between her department and her superiors, communicating problems and concerns her department was facing in the normal course of business and making requests of her superiors as anyone in her exact position would be expected to do,” Bryson wrote.

Siebern, who had been with the UA since 1997, was let go on Oct. 4, 2023, according to court documents. She had been a business manager with the College of Education’s Department of Disability and Psychoeducation Studies, which she joined in 2014.

In court hearings, Siebern’s attorneys alleged the university had given “shifting and contradictory explanations” for her termination, and that there were no performance complaints in Siebern’s almost 20-year record at the UA, including the months leading up to her firing.

However, attorneys representing ABOR’s side said former College of Education Dean Robert Berry, who made the final termination decision, had initially alleged in testimony that Siebern was let go due to payment delays for a student.