College of Communication dean John Schulz swore at an alumna at a West Coast gathering on June 15 when he realized she had criticized him in a letter recently published in the Boston Globe. The incident comes amid an investigation into the dean’s conduct by university officials and allegations that he has verbally abused several faculty members.

In an account of the incident, COM graduate Lilly Jan wrote that during a brief conversation she declared herself a co-author of the Globe letter. Schulz then abruptly chastised her, calling her a “first-class asshole,” according to the account.

The dean apologized in a June 21 email to Jan, calling his own conduct “utterly inappropriate under any circumstance,” and saying he reacted the way he did because he was “stunned and taken aback” when Jan said she was behind the Globe letter. The apology came days after the provost was made aware of the incident.

The apology letter is the first known evidence of a frequent journalism faculty claim that the dean often lashes out at colleagues and students. That claim is a central focus of allegations the faculty members brought to Provost David Campbell last month, when they called for an investigation of the dean for allegedly exaggerating his resume and mistreating colleagues.

The co-author of Jan’s letter to the Globe, Thomas Rains, a former Daily Free Press staff writer and BU graduate, passed on Jan’s account in an email to the former journalism department chairman Robert Zelnick, who, in turn, shared it with the rest of the journalism faculty. In his email, sent Thursday afternoon, Zelnick said he was preparing to testify before the committee investigating Schulz that day, the first sign that the normally secretive committee is actively investigating. Zelnick wrote that he welcomed other faculty members’ comments on the swearing incident.

He received a response from journalism professor Nick Mills.

“This is not an isolated incident,” Mills wrote. “It fits a pattern of outburst-apology, misstatement-correction. But this incident alone, calling an alumna a ‘first-class asshole’ at an alumni function would seem cause for dismissal.”

In an interview, Jan said she was hurt by the dean’s comments because she had been a student in one of his classes and had “a fairly good rapport” with him. She recalled that she sent him a letter of congratulations when he was named dean in 2003.

“I did have a pretty fond memory of him,” she said.

Jan said she had been unaware of the ongoing investigation into the dean’s conduct at the time he allegedly cursed at her and did not realize the incident might factor into the committee’s decision regarding the dean.

Schulz declined to comment for this story.

Calls to Provost David Campbell’s residence were not immediately returned, and BU spokesman Colin Riley was not aware of the incident and declined to comment.