A Washington State University provost who contends he was assaulted after a meeting of senior university administrators had been behaving in a way that most witnesses described as “disrespectful, rude, condescending and arrogant,” according to an assistant attorney general’s report. That meeting, according to the vice presidents, executive directors, department heads and chancellors who were in attendance, degenerated into name-calling, profanity, hurt feelings and ultimately a minor physical confrontation in the hallway.