A review committee at the University of Wisconsin at Madison unanimously concluded today that the university had failed to show it had just cause to discipline an administrator, Paul W. Barrows, over allegations of sexual harassment lodged against him when he was vice chancellor for student affairs.

Last September, Peter Spear, who was then the university’s provost, issued a letter of reprimand to Mr. Barrows in response to accusations from another administrator that he had sexually harassed two women, neither of whom had themselves filed complaints. The case was widely publicized in newspapers, and the university came under fire from many state lawmakers, partly because Mr. Barrows had been allowed to remain on the administrative payroll, as a special assistant to the chancellor, after being demoted from his vice-chancellor position over the allegations (The Chronicle, November 25, 2005, and December 16, 2005).

A five-member Academic Staff Appeals Committee announced its conclusions this morning, after two days of hearing testimony from Mr. Barrows, his accusers, administrators, students, Mr. Spear, and the university’s investigator in the case. See an article in today’s Capital Times for more details on the committee’s action.