Feds Back Harassment Complaints At WSU Report Cites ‘Pattern Of Retaliation’ Against Women

Federal civil rights officials have concluded that sexual harassment is “severe and pervasive” at Washington State University and the university lacks the safeguards and training to prevent it.

An 18-month investigation by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs also found a “pattern of retaliation” in which women who complained have been denied promotions, placed in dead-end positions, given poor evaluations and threatened with loss of their jobs.

Meanwhile, the office concluded, school officials often shrugged off the women’s complaints as mere “personality conflicts.”

Earlier this year, five women employees were notified by investigators that discrimination and retaliation were being found in their cases. A new report notes more far-reaching problems based on interviews with more than two dozen women employees.

The findings are in a seven-page report mailed to WSU last week and released Wednesday by WSU officials, who pledged to get a grip on the problem. Their remedies will include striking a conciliation agreement with the feds and possible financial settlements with some of the seven women named in the class-action complaint at the heart of the investigation.

“We still have some concern about the findings,” said Geoff Gamble, vice provost for academic affairs and President Sam Smith’s designated point-person on the complaints. “We feel that the findings are very careful listening to the complaints but they don’t necessarily reflect a very thorough examination of the facts that underlie those complaints.

“That doesn’t mean that we don’t recognize some problems here. We do and we’re committed to moving ahead to finding a resolution to those problems.”

Leslie Liddle-Stamper, one of the seven women and president of the WSU employees union, said the federal findings clearly show the university has failed to live up to its civil rights responsibilities as a recipient of federal funds.

But she was pessimistic about the university’s ability to improve the campus climate for women and how it handles their complaints.

“I don’t see any affirmative, positive changes taking place here,” she said. “Sam (Smith) said at the Regents (meeting on May 10), ‘We’ve done things wrong in the past and the future is going to be better.’ I don’t see it.”

The federal investigation appears to have gone well beyond the women in the complaint to include interviews with more than 25 female WSU employees. They said male co-workers and supervisors practiced a range of harassing behavior “severe and pervasive enough to effect their work environment,” the report states.

One supervisor would stare at the breasts of a female employee. One male employee touched and twirled the hair of a female co-worker, according to the report.

Others posted cartoons demeaning to women.

At least 10 women interviewed had complaints “explained away as personality conflicts,” the report said.

“WSU’s safeguards were inadequate to ensure that their personnel practices and policies are administered equitably and to ensure that reported instances of sexual harassment would be dealt with promptly.”

A review of WSU discrimination complaint data, obtained separately Wednesday by The Spokesman-Review, suggests the school rarely finds on behalf of women bringing charges of harassment and discrimination. The Center for Human Rights - the main office for handling civil rights complaints - saw discrimination in only one of 11 complaints brought in 1995 and 1996 and concluded there was no discrimination in five other cases. The results of the remaining five cases were not mentioned.

Gamble said the university plans to improve the complaint process. First, the school will hire a new director for the Center for Human Rights, which has been without a permanent head since last July, and bring in a national consultant to review the center and the employee relations office.

, DataTimes