When Sally Dear spoke to a New York Times reporter last February about the pressure she felt from Binghamton University’s athletic department to grant special privileges to athletes, she was nervous for her job.

On Tuesday, roughly eight months after the article ran, Dear received a letter notifying her that she would not return for the spring semester.

As an adjunct lecturer at Binghamton University, Dear does not have tenure. She said that the link between her speaking to The Times and being dismissed is “indisputably strong.”

”I believe that I was expected to overlook certain things and give preferential treatment to student-athletes,” she said Thursday. “That compromised my integrity and the integrity of other students in my class.”

Namely, Dear said, she felt pressure from members of the athletic department to overlook absences.

Dear went to her department chair, which she thought was the proper procedure, and expressed her concerns. She also said that The Times reporter approached her last year.

After receiving the letter, Dear said she was both surprised and unsurprised at the same time.

“I think they’ve [BU officials] been very strategic in how they’re handling it, so that questionable decisions were minimized,” she said. “They followed all the rules, crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s to make sure I have very little ability to prove that my not being invited back has anything to do with the situation.”

She has yet to decide whether to take any legal action.

University spokeswoman Gail Glover told The Times that Dear’s accusations are not accurate and that she was let go because of the “uncertain fiscal environment.”

During a press conference Wednesday, President Lois DeFleur acknowledged “severe” budget cuts, which she said have led to the dismissal of many adjunct faculty members. Provost MaryAnn Swain didn’t have the number of adjunct lecturers who were dismissed, but said these University-wide cuts amount to a savings of more than $1.3 million. She added that the adjunct lecturers who have been dismissed were those whose credentials were weaker, as officials must base re-hiring decisions solely on department needs and faculty certification.

DeFleur also made note of an investigation conducted by herself and Swain in response to Dear’s accusations, during which they spoke with faculty, deans and the Faculty Senate.

According to Dear, she was never approached by the president or anyone else about the investigation.

“If they didn’t talk to me, I’m not sure who they talked to,” she said.

DeFleur said that all the faculty members and leaders she spoke with were impressed with the procedures of the athletic department in terms of making attendance checks.

“We found no other instances where faculty felt pressured from the athletic department,” Swain said. “If we had found any of these, the president would have launched a very formal review process.”

Swain did acknowledge that a member of the athletics department had approached Dear about her attendance policy, which she said is “at variance” with recommendations in the Faculty Staff Handbook. According to the book, attendance policy is one area where the University asks faculty to be flexible when it comes to students who represent the University, from members of the debate team to athletes.

But Dear said that she had athletes who missed seven classes or more, and that she felt pressured to ignore them.

Although she could not pinpoint a date for the investigation, Swain said it was sometime during spring 2009. She was not sure whether the investigation took place before or after The Times article went to print.

Still, Dear, who plans to finish her dissertation for her Ph.D. next semester at BU, said that her history at the University, as both a lecturer and a student, is proof enough that she doesn’t want to bring negative attention to the school.

“I did not look for this, I’ve only spoken the truth that’s happened to me,” she said. “My purpose above all is to be ethical and to be fair.”