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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Our View: Sexual harassment at universities alarming

The Spokesman-Review

Sixteen years ago, some clueless U.S. senators were taught a lesson on sexual harassment during the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Many women were appalled by the dismissive attitude and general disregard for the charges leveled by Anita Hill.

Since then, sexual harassment training has been an on-the-job staple for businesses and organizations. Thousands of offenders have been fired. The terms “hostile environment” and “unwanted advances” are well-known. Or should be.

So it’s appalling to see some of the behavior exhibited by tenured faculty at colleges, as reported recently by Spokesman-Review reporter Shawn Vestal.

Professors have threatened the employment of graduates students who rebuffed them, invited students to their homes for wine and sexual conversations, made repeated unwelcome comments about sex and students’ appearance, touched students inappropriately, gotten far too involved in students’ personal problems and on and on.

In short, they flunked the introductory course to sexual harassment.

National surveys of students find that sexual harassment is common. College officials acknowledge that more of this happens than is reported, but they are seemingly incurious about just how often. When asked how many tenured faculty members had been disciplined for sexual harassment cases, they didn’t know. It’s pretty sad when a reporter has to tell them.

It took months for Washington State University to compile sexual harassment records. Eastern Washington University released records in eight cases. The University of Idaho declined the request.

WSU and EWU have fragmented systems for handling sexual harassment and keeping information. After the S-R’s records request, WSU proposed a centralized system for tracking disciplinary records.

From 1994 to 2006, WSU handled 44 discipline cases for tenured faculty; 19 of those involved sexual harassment. Fourteen of those cases were considered unfounded. But those numbers do not include numerous nontenured instructors, administrators and other employees. The most egregious case was that of a librarian who was the subject of numerous complaints and warnings about improper touching and dating subordinates. He lost his supervisory position, but he still works at the school.

Such lenience might help explain why victims are reluctant to come forward. The school’s sexual harassment policy doesn’t provide many avenues for punishment. Often alleged abusers are just sent off to training to learn what they should have already known. Only two tenured professors at WSU and one at EWU have been fired for any reason in the past decade. Some have resigned quietly over sexual harassment allegations.

Tenure is important for academic freedom, but it shouldn’t be a shield to protect those who consider subordinates and students to be part of their benefits package. A lawsuit filed by a graduate student in February has prompted WSU to tighten its policies on sexual harassment.

But legal exposure is only one reason to crack down. Students have enough pressures without having to worry whether authority figures at school consider them part of the dating pool. Preying on them is just wrong.

Sixteen years after the Thomas-Hill hearings, it looks like some very smart people still don’t get it.