January 30, 2008

Professor Accused of Sexual Harassment Resigns

A professor at the University of Georgia who has been accused of sexually harassing female undergraduates for nearly two decades will resign by the end of the academic year.

William Neil Bender, a professor of communications and special education at Georgia, has faced a slew of complaints from undergraduate women since 1989 — including allegations that he told female students sexually suggestive jokes, invited them to his lake house to swim and use his Jacuzzi, and made unwelcome remarks about their bodies. The allegations are detailed in a lengthy article today in Georgia’s student newspaper, The Red and Black.

The latest allegations against Mr. Bender were made last summer by the husband of one of Mr. Bender’s students, who complained to the university that the professor and the man’s wife had had a sexual relationship. In addition, two female students complained to the university last summer about Mr. Bender’s behavior toward them.

According to the student newspaper, the university found Mr. Bender guilty of sexual harassment, but it is allowing him to teach two online courses this semester under the agreement that he “refrain from having private and/or personal interactions with university students,” according to the student newspaper, which cited documents it had obtained from the university’s legal-affairs office.

In an e-mail message to The Chronicle, Mr. Bender said the allegations of inappropriate behavior were “exaggerated or represent outright falsehoods.” He added: “Those who know me recognize that the pattern of behavior described does not appropriately characterize who I am. Rather, I am consistently evaluated as an excellent teacher, and a great many students over the years have chosen to work directly with me.” —Robin Wilson

Comments

1. How could this university possibly have allowed their students to be available to this professor for so long. They are just as responsible. It is painful to see that women are still so devalued in the world of higher education.

   — J. Smith    Jan 30, 11:25 AM    #

2. Somebody must have been asleep at the wheel if this guy was able to stick around for so long.

   — Donald E. Winters, Ph.D.    Jan 30, 02:39 PM    #

3. Yes, this is tragic! How could a university allow any female to go so unprotected? Those in higher education all know that women are much too fragile, naive, or otherwise incapable of simply telling such jerks to “buzz off.” Thank government that the PC-elite once again prevailed in lining lawyers’ pockets while suppressing free (however tasteless) speech.

   — K. Jones    Jan 30, 02:48 PM    #

4. K. Jones persists in the troglodytic, male, mysogynistic practice of blaming the victim. Let us hope you are not an administrator.

   — history professor    Jan 30, 03:21 PM    #

5. This is of course not the only such instance. A prof. with whom I studied was well known among his students for his inappropriate suggestive comments, looks, and touches, but retired emeritus.

   — K. Peters    Jan 30, 03:24 PM    #

6. Wow. While I agree that this professor’s actions were egregious, to say that “women are much too fragile, naive, or otherwise incapable of simply telling such jerks to ‘buzz off’” is utterly misogynistic and an equally potent form of harassment and discrimination.

   — M.    Jan 30, 03:25 PM    #

7. The specifics of this situation concern women students, but the general problem is not exclusive to women and should not be termed a gender issue. The problem stems from the component of power within the teacher/student relationship. There is nothing wrong with a male student saying a nasty joke to a fellow female student…however even this may be harrassment if the male student continues to bother/harass the other female student despite warnings to stop…it is all in the specifics of a situation

   — Onenine    Jan 30, 03:31 PM    #

8. This is absurd…since 1989. They’d best be looking in the records for other similary ignored complaints. How irresponsible! The person or committee who sat on the complaints should be taken to task.

   — Apalled    Jan 30, 03:43 PM    #

9. Having been an adminstrator trying to provide support to victims and targets of such abuses, I think universities are especially resistant (unlike other organizations with different types of personnel-staff) to dealing with faculty like this for fear of negative public perceptions that may reach in many directions. What they don’t realize is that 20 years of covering up is far more damaging for all. More diligent and aggressive actions are essential on an institutional basis.

   — adminstrator    Jan 30, 03:44 PM    #

10. Two decades! How can any organzation have allowed this to go on for so long…this creep should have been out after two days!

    — College HR Director    Jan 30, 03:45 PM    #

11. Just ignore K. Jones, and he will fade back into lurkerdom, If you feed the trolls, they just keep coming back for more handouts and gratification.

    — Scott    Jan 30, 03:46 PM    #

12. As a person who was sexually harrassed my my boss, I know from experience that it is nearly impossible to do anything about it because the harrasser usually has all the power and does it because he/she knows that he/she can get away with it. With the difficulty of terminating a tenured professor, the best and sometimes the only thing the victim can do is try to stay away. As long as people continue to abuse their power over others with no consequences, it will continue to demoralize and deeply hurt those they prey on. Nothing will change.

    — jb    Jan 30, 03:46 PM    #

13. A university that knows there is an atmosphere of harassment and does not take clear steps to stop it may be liable. Sexual harassment is wrong in and of itself, but tolerating it opens the university to litigation that it will lose.

    — Carol    Jan 30, 03:47 PM    #

14. That’s a typical comment from K. Jones, who once harassed me while I was protesting outside a church, in drag of course, for my right to burn the American flag. I was dressed as Hillary (as the senator, not First Lady) and he said “Why do want our soldiers to die?”

    — Justin    Jan 30, 03:52 PM    #

15. I’m an alumna of Georgia and find this situation appalling. Why is this man still employed there? No more funds from me, Georgia!

    — May S.    Jan 30, 03:55 PM    #

16. Glad to see no profs joining to say that it is their right to seek sex with students. They are out there, for sure. Gutless administrators – from whence stems the cowardly, and widely prevalent, behavior of hiding and avoiding instead of standing up and kicking the jerk(s) off campus into the police station?

    — John    Jan 30, 04:02 PM    #

17. Twenty years is pretty extraordinary, but remember that in order for an institution to take action, allegations must be made and substantiated. It is not enough that someone is accused; the presumption of innocence applies to all—even accused sexual harrassers.As one who has dismissed a senior faculty member for sexual harrassment, I can tell you it is not easy to do.

    — administrator    Jan 30, 04:20 PM    #

18. I’d like to think that K. Jones was being sarcastic… right?

    — Matthew    Jan 30, 04:30 PM    #

19. The University of Georgia let this abuse go on since 1989? What are they trying to do, compete with the Catholic church?

    — Donald E. Winters, Ph.D.    Jan 30, 04:50 PM    #

20. It would be so nice to not only tell one’s harasser to “buzz off” but to use much stronger language upon hearing such offensive comments. Unfortunately, many students are in very difficult positions politically. This is particularly true of doctoral students whose offender may be in control of funding or on his or her dissertation committee. I know of one such offender who is famous for this. It has seriously affected a student that I know to the extent that she has panic attacks and has experienced depression. Some recent research made me aware of some high percentages of female grad students that experience sexual harassment. One major problem mentioned was that there are often few tenured female faculty in departments that can assist in the protection of such students. I read that many female faculty being sexually harassed themselves. The power dynamic in academia leaves a large space for these types of problems to occur. If this professor has been committing these offences since ’89, will there also not be penalties for those who knew?

    — ss    Jan 30, 05:02 PM    #

21. At the university where I work, two professors were accused of sexually harrassing grad students in their research labs, as well as some female colleagues, for two years. Incidents were reported, but during changes in university administration the reports slipped through the cracks or were minimally investigated. It was later learned that a high-ranking official knew of the allegations but kept quiet and then recommended tenure be granted to the harrassing professors. The whole issue came to light when a law suit was filed against the university, which paid a very large sum to settle out of court. The tenure-recommending official has since resigned, the allegations are finally fully under investigation, and the professors retain their positions in the meantime.

    — Deborah    Jan 30, 05:31 PM    #

22. Can anyone say “Clarence Thomas”?

    I saw the same thing happen at a University I was at in the 1990’s. He was allowed to resign. He then moved on to a small Christian College in Florida.

    — Data Geek    Jan 30, 06:16 PM    #

23. Doesn’t the AAUP have some language in their classic Academic Freedom statement about dismissal for “moral turpitude.? So where were they all these years?

    — Merle F. Allshouse    Jan 30, 07:27 PM    #

24. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is an isolated experience in academia. I had a bad experience at a different University in the south, that employed several such predatory persons in one department (for equally as long, and with similar / possibly worse offenses). Students and junior faculty complained to appropriate positions of leadership, but nothing was done. In fact, since I left that environment the offenders have been given substantial raises. It is sickening to think that a University would leave their faculty, and especially their students, vulnerable to people that have a clear record of inappropriate behavior.

    — Glad to be gone    Jan 30, 11:08 PM    #

25. I find Bender’s comments fascinating.” Those who know me recognize that the pattern of behavior described does not appropriately characterize who I am. “ I knew him when I was a student and I witnessed inappropriate things. I have heard the stories from students who have worked with him. I have no doubts about the accusations. I can’t speak for others who know him, but I think Bender must be delusional about what people think of him. Finally someone has forced him out. Too bad it has taken so long.

    — I know Bender    Jan 30, 11:54 PM    #

26. This is a story of utter failure. Bender’s comments suggest that he doesn’t have a clue about how his behavior affected his students. Georgia LONG AGO should have set about educating him, even working with him, to recognize what he was doing to others and putting himself at risk for. A little education and intervention early on would go a long way towards keeping such things from reaching this point.

    — LP    Jan 31, 06:50 AM    #

27. America is solving this problem by generating generations of women not worth harrassing. Not optimal but effective nonetheless. Another factor is women are recognizing that men who are interested in sexual interaction with women un-interested in them (the men), are somehow seriously mis-functioning. The very idea of sexual play between a party interested and a party not interested is a real turn off for most normals, I am told.

    — Richard Tabor Greene    Jan 31, 06:56 AM    #

28. As dreadful as behavior like Bender’s is to students, it is just as poisonous for female faculty members in that department. As a junior faculty member, I was pressured by our version of Bender to write references for his student girlfriends — which I was to give to him, not the students.

    Later, in an administrative capacity in my department, he pressured me to award a secret, no-bid contract to one of the student-girlfriends for make-work. When I complained to a dean, he embarked on a campaign of personal destruction against me while the administrators stood on the sidelines. All they cared about was covering for him and keeping his scandalous conduct out of the newspapers.

    Even though he has now retired, the department continues to suffer. Our fund-raising efforts with alumni/ae often encounter bitter students who resent the University for not doing something about him.

    When administrators refuse to clamp down on this egregious behavior, everybody suffers along with the students.

    — female faculty member    Jan 31, 07:01 AM    #

29. “America is solving this problem by generating generations of women not worth harrassing.”
    Excuse me? Are women now supposed to strive to be “good enough” to be harassed? How unbelievably offensive. And unfortunately, the Benders of the world will continue their behavior unchecked until the old boy networks in administration stop protecting them (or, more likely, retire).

    — Beth    Jan 31, 08:34 AM    #

30. I wonder about all this complaining. In the real world women often use their sex to obtain favorable treatment and to advance. The words “victim” and “victimizer” really don’t apply. In response to #28, we are all “pressured” by our bosses from time to time to do things we don’t wholly agree with. That is the nature of the workplace. Perhaps someday you will be the boss and then you can set an example by not doing so. When I was in college we had a famous woman History prof who liked us male students. In fact, her grading system was A for athletes, B for boys and C for girls. We went with it, had some fun and otherwise survived the experience. In no way would I agree that I was a “victim”. That is just life in a world with 2 sexes who are supposed to be attracted to each other.

    — Innocent By-Stander    Jan 31, 08:40 AM    #

31. Just to clarify-all of the behavior as described is unacceptable, but not all of it is sexual harassment. Some of it is sexual harassment, some of it is egregiously poor judgment, some of it is immoral. There’s a difference.

    — Damien    Jan 31, 08:45 AM    #

32. To #30: This isn’t about accepting the status quo. What example are we setting for the students if we are expecting them to go on and change the world.

    On that note, I think we need more information available for university administrators, students, and faculty as to how to best address and work with these issues when they arise. We need to find ways to keep all within the university community safe.

    — Alumni Relations Director    Jan 31, 08:53 AM    #

33. To #30 and #31 (and #3): Sexual harassment has as much to do with power as it does with sex/gender. If a professor – who is empowered to evaluate and judge the work of students and therefore is in an authoritative position in the relationship with each individual student – asserts his/her authority over his/her students in the manner described in the article or in the post by #30, it is indeed an abuse of power and one linked to sex/gender – hence the designation of sexual harassment.

    Moreover, the academy is not somehow set apart from “the real world.” Faculty and staff are paid to perform a service, much as employees at other businesses are, and in the academic setting, as much as in corporate America, men and women both are capable of abusing their power.

    — Steve    Jan 31, 09:12 AM    #

34. I beg to differ about there being no victim and victimizer. Unless it has happened to you and you feel absolutely powerless to do anything or say anything, you may not completely understand. In addition, one never knows what someone may have dealt with prior to the sexual harassment that may add to the trauma. On the street, it is easy for one to say no. To a person who may damage the career one has worked so hard for, not so easy. All the internalization of those emotions can leave one damaged for years.

    — rc    Jan 31, 09:15 AM    #

35. This is for so-called Innocent bystander: times have changed, and I am the boss. You better believe I set an example and that I will NOT tolerate what Innocent calls ‘just life’ in ‘the real world.’

    — Carol    Jan 31, 09:17 AM    #

36. In response to #30, your nonchalance in accepting detestable conduct and rejecting the notion that these women are victims illustrates how unaware you are of the difference between a demanding boss and one who is wholly abusing his or her power.

    — S    Jan 31, 09:19 AM    #

37. Many of the writers here are selling a great institution and its administration way too short. (No, I don’t work there nor did I attend Georgia.) Until you have worked on one of these cases as an attorney or decisionmaker, you really can never see how truly frustrating they can be. I can’t count how many times complainants-who usually had very legitimate complaints-refused to cooperate with investigations. Whether it was because they had a change of heart, or feared retaliation, or knew that the charges were false, or whatever: many, if not most, victims back away from the formal due process proceedings. Some faculty members, especially the predatory types know and take advantage of this fact. But the truth remains: insofar as public institutions are concerned, due process must be afforded and it can be long and very messy. Firing a tenured professor is undoubtedly the number one most difficult, expensive, and time-consuming undertaking an institution ever has to do.

    — gg    Jan 31, 10:00 AM    #

38. Great. Bender can still teach online. I hope Chris Hansen audits his class!

    — marci    Jan 31, 11:24 AM    #

39. Thirty years ago, I was an eighteen year old freshman (male) studying pipe organ at a major university. During an organ lesson, one is usually alone, doors closed, with the instructor, and an organ instructor often sits on the bench beside you to observe your keyboard technique and to turn pages. My instructor was a female graduate student who, about half-way through the semester, “accidently” rested her hand on my privates, for just a second or two. I turned to her and said, “Please don’t do that.” She didn’t ever again, and I still got an A. It’s not only the “old men” who are “dirty”, as everyone seems to assume, and there are often better ways to handle these things than through the billion-dollar anti-harassment industry of which universities were founding members.

    — Robert    Jan 31, 12:19 PM    #

40. A large part of this country was willing to tolerate similar predatory behavior in its president and considered the conduct insufficient grounds for termination. Tenure in most universities requires the establishment of good cause through a due process hearing— the presentation of convincing evidence. I don’t know the facts here, but many of these cases are largely explained by the fact that the university is without witnesses or victims who are willing to testify.
    MS

    — mike smith    Jan 31, 12:27 PM    #

41. >>>>A large part of this country was willing to tolerate similar predatory behavior in its president

    — Robert    Jan 31, 12:42 PM    #

42. Come on Robert (#41), that was two consenting adults-entirely different-and Okay. After all that didn’t kill 4K Americans, just a harmless blue dress.

    — Not a Socialist, but a pragmatist    Jan 31, 03:33 PM    #

43. Question still remains:

    Why did they let him continue to teach in the classroom in the Fall of 07 after this was made known to all?

    — vv    Jan 31, 04:06 PM    #

44. Sexual harassment is a violation of federal law (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964), and applies to both public and private institutions. Any employer with 15 or more employees can be held liable for sexual harassment if the employer knew, or should have known, that harassment was taking place. Although the process of investigating a complaint can be long and messy, once it’s brought to the attention of a university official (or member of Human Resources), it must be investigated.

    — Lisa    Jan 31, 04:29 PM    #

45. My prof during my doc program told sexist jokes constantly such as how are women like diapers- they are full of s%^& and you need to change them often. We complained- he kept teaching and telling the jokes. He had tenure. The class was Couples Therapy.

    — D    Jan 31, 06:58 PM    #

46. As a past Senior Administrator (non-faculty administrator), I have several insights on why Faculty can get away with such harassing behaviors. (1) Faculty are “revenues” and others (Administrators & Staff) are “expenses” ...as I was told by the Dean when reporting a concern against an offending faculty member. (2) Most Senior Administrators who could make a difference are Faculty-Administrators (have Faculty status with no training on how HE works), not Administrators (with PhDs in Higher Ed Administration who are trained in the law & responsbiliities of HE). (3) Shared Governance: Where Faculty & Faculty-Administrators are on the committees evaluating the Faculty who has been reported; they out-rank the handful of Administrators (business people) who are on the committee…and simply there (according to the faculty) to do the paperwork which faculty disdain. (4) The AAUP has a policy (followed by most institutions) that says Faculty are to do no harm to students AND Faculty have free speach to have relationships with students (since they are considered adults). Male profesors overwhelmingly support this policy…while many female professors often point out the imbalance of power between Students & Faculty as justification for limiting Student-Faculty relationships. (5) When a student charges a faculty member with sexual harassment, the standard arguement is often that “if” a relationship occurred, everyone is a concenting adult with free speach.

    As a Senior Administrator who was sexually harassed by a Faculty member (that was on probation at the time for sexually harassing a student) who brought much funding into the institution, I was told by the Institution’s attorney that such charges couldn’t be used against him…since I had been harassed the month before the Institution put him on probation. The underlying arguement I was supposed to accept was that (1) the Faculty was a big revenue, (2) the Faculty Dean had decided that the Faculty was indespensible and I, the non-faculty Administrator, was dispensible, (3) Faculty on the EEOC committee who hadnled these charges had deemed the probation as appropriate; the non-faculty members were only there to enforce the faculty’s decision, (4) the AAUP policy didn’t prevent Faculty from “relationships” and the student’s charge (as well as mine) could be construed as “muddled” over whether everyone was consenting, and (5) we were all adults…who could say no whenever we wanted to…or yes.

    Enough said.

    — MM, PhD    Jan 31, 08:54 PM    #

47. I received my PhD from UGA several years ago, and at that time two of the old southern male writers in the English Department were well-known for harassing much younger grad students. I was one of them. I did file a complaint with the then-head of the CW program, but she shrugged it off, saying, “Well, they are southern men—what do you expect?”

    — S H-G    Jan 31, 09:42 PM    #

48. Several years ago I served as the faculty advisor to several brave undergrad women at my institution who complained of sexual harassment by a prominent prof. He at least got a slap on the wrist (but not much more than that); they were publicly ridiculed and excoriated for over-reacting to his ‘friendly’ gestures. I saw all the evidence that was never made public. His behavior to them was disgusting and repulsive. Later I heard reports of him resuming his ‘friendliness’ to certain students. yucks. It takes a lot of courage to stand up against someone who you think can & will retaliate against you. I had a lot of respect for the young women who did.

    — sr female faculty    Feb 1, 12:21 AM    #

49. What needs to happen is a professor needs to be shot & killed for sexual harrasmment and the news published every where to discourage the practice!
    Bubba talks..

    — bubba    Feb 1, 01:18 PM    #

50. #48 please don’t place Southern men in that stereotype. Southern men are not philanderers anymore than men from anywhere else are.
    We are very proud of Southern women and the strength that they possessed during the war of northern aggression and that their great (great) granddaughters possess today!

    — Good ol' Bubba    Feb 1, 02:01 PM    #

51. Y’all are missing it. He’s one of 3 on the front page of the student paper today. www.redandblack.com Such people will NOT take no for an answer and must be fired.

    — grad student    Feb 1, 02:36 PM    #

52. After sitting through my last semester and hearing yet another feminiz prof in spiked heels and buffont Victorian hairstyle talk endlessly about how white men are all complicit sexual harrassers—” the white male gaze looks at people as objects” while showing slides of “how white men percieve the black male body” (* images of black men with their pants hanging off their ass*)
    She says in the next breath “ Isn’t he haaaAAWWWT, girls!!” refering to same black males—I am forced to wonder: is this a form of sexual harrassment? How about when she discusses the apparent fear that men have of black penises, or blames her own body disorder on the male gaze rather than her mothers invasive gaze?
    But my grade—which I had to argue for(Kobeena Mercers writing is that of an angry black man—and it took a bit of research to find out he is also gay)—was lower than I am used to getting.
    Maybe it was the fact that, when she sequestered me in her office for a midterm discussion, I chose to dosagree with her methods, and noted her hypocrisy…..now where is that sexual harassment claim form….?

    — the real me    Feb 1, 05:11 PM    #

53. Bottom line is that UGA administration did nothing and are now looking pretty foolish—see video clips of the Provost squirming as he tries to blame everyone and everything else (like tenure). Unfortunately, like many administrations, the most important thing was minimize bad press by hiding problems. If the bad press then hits the fan then pass the buck. Bender is the tip of the iceberg and not just in terms of sexual harassment.

    — john    Feb 1, 06:08 PM    #

54. When I was in graduate school it took me the standard 2 yrs to complete my master’s. However, the sexual harrassment and unethical advising of my former advisor continued after I had left A.B.D. to teach, while finishing the dissertation. I made the decision to let my testimony be part of the hearing filed against him by the ethics committee of Virginia Tech. But, having to gather up a new committee and a new chair, and this was after yrs of attempting to obtain the stimuli I needed to even collect my data, it ended up taking me 10 yrs to finish the Ph.D.!!! My new chair and committee took mercy or me because they never thought I’d finish.
    I finished with less-than-adaquate research skills and was left to my naivete to find “a job”. I wasn’t emotionally ready to take the first positon offered to me only 2 month after I finally finished. Say no more.

    He his no longer able to hold a university position. Big deal.

    He is happily married (she actually stayed with him), works for a hospital doing research, and resides in a nice town in a nice house.

    I live with my emotional scars, and my daily grief. The nightmare that I had almost every night for 8 yrs has stopped, thank God.

    All I ever wanted was my Ph.D. I never asked for anything more.

    — it happened to me    Feb 1, 06:09 PM    #

55. I’m a professor in the psychology dept at UGA. A faculty-staff driven petition drive has begun, to speak out forcefully against all forms of harassment at UGA. We welcome signatures from all members of the UGA community. Thank you.

    http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/UGA_Harassment/

    — Janet Frick    Feb 3, 10:00 AM    #

56. This is exactly what I am going through in South Carolina. I have been told that I am the only student to come forward and speak out about my harasser. I know of many students that the professor at USC-Aiken has harassed but none will come forward. I just wonder how many were before me and how many will there be after me?

    — Brandy    Feb 6, 09:46 PM    #

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