March 3, 2008

Former Professor at U. of Georgia Accused of Long Record of Sexual Harassment

The Athens Banner-Herald published an article on Sunday that gives details of sexual-harassment complaints lodged over a period of 13 years against a prominent former professor of anthropology at the University of Georgia.

(The Chronicle cited the university’s student newspaper, The Red and the Black, as having broken the story about the allegations on Monday in the original version of this blog post. The student paper’s article followed the Banner-Herald’s report.)

According to documents obtained by the paper, the professor, Benjamin G. Blount, left the University in Georgia in May 2004, after the second such complaint filed against him in the space of one year. A complaint filed by an undergraduate in 2003 led to Mr. Blount’s being found in violation of the university’s policy on sexual harassment, the documents show. A second complaint, filed by a colleague in his department in 2004, was still under investigation by the university’s Office of Legal Affairs when Mr. Blount resigned.

The Banner-Herald also reported that two earlier complaints, lodged by students at the university in 1991 and in 1996, had been dropped. Mr. Blount declined to comment to the Banner-Herald.

The Red and the Black reported on Monday that after his resignation at Georgia, he was hired as a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. An assistant provost at that university confirmed to the Georgia student paper that Mr. Blount still teaches there, but on Monday night, his name did not appear on the Web page listing faculty members in the Texas-San Antonio anthropology department.

After his resignation at Georgia, Mr. Blount was appointed as editor of the American Anthropologist, a publication of the American Anthropological Association, in March 2005. He resigned as editor in May 2007. —Richard Byrne

Comments

1. All of us are entitled to the presumption of innocence. That means, innocent until PROVEN guilty. In our society we don’t convict people on the basis of allegations.

   — Innocent By-Stander    Mar 4, 09:57 AM    #

2. True enough about presumed innocent until guilty; I had Blount in 1990 and loved him. But this university has some other problems with sexual harrasment in the works. I recently signed an e-petition arguing for tougher S.H. policies for faculty/staff concerning a case against long-time a professor in education. At that time it had 250+ names on it.
   The fact that it took three students (two who were summarily ignored) and finally one colleague to get Blount out, is what is most disturbing. Why don’t students’ voices get heard in these cases?

   — UGA alum    Mar 4, 10:20 AM    #

3. Students’ voices are not heard because they are the voices of women. Many take for granted that young women would appreciate an older man to “bring them up & along.” If a woman behaved this way, she would be run out of town. It is a shame that these “old fools” do not see themselves as others do.

   — Grad Student    Mar 4, 10:31 AM    #

4. We had a similar problem with a male faculty member where everyone knew but no one cared. He finally moved on but through no effort of our admin. I wonder every day how damaged his next student victim will have to be for someone to listen.

   — Grad Student 2    Mar 4, 11:23 AM    #

5. Yes, if Blount had kissed or grabbed the thighs and rears of male students, I doubt this would have been swept under the rug for so long.

   — AG    Mar 4, 11:24 AM    #

6. Blount was an excellent professor at UGA. It is a shame that he was targeted by a vindictive woman who wanted to climb over his body on her way to full professorship. Her accusation letter portrays herself as an innocent professor who came from overseas and was unfamiliar with American educational system, but the truth of the matter is that she had received her PhD at a US university and she was entirely aware of how sexual harassment allegations could be used for her own career advancement.

   What is not mentioned in the story is that the female professor had a history of being difficult to work with and that she was always confrontational with other members of the department, both faculty and student. Also, no where mentioned in the story is that the female professor is reputed to have had a sexual relationship with a male graduate student during the time when her supposed allegations against Blount took place.

   — UGA anthro grad    Mar 4, 12:01 PM    #

7. “We” also tolerate teacher/student “dating,” as long as we can state that she is no longer in his class, not his advisee & so on. (Again, there is a fairly set gender role to all this). It is a given that male professors will end up with their pick of the female crop. This, without consideration of how it tends to play out for the student involved.
   It is considered intolerable for a physician or therapist to target clients. I think that we educators must hold ourselves and our peers to this standard.
   To anthro grad: I knew someone would “go there” – a woman scorned, woman working the system. Face it: the dominant system is that male faculty have been allowed to behave unprofessionally for too long!

   — Grad Student    Mar 4, 12:11 PM    #

8. This is a complex issue; too complex to make judgments based on incomplete information. I’ve been a chair for 11 years. I have seen outright sexual harrassment by professors. I’ve seen somewhat vague perceived harrassment. I’ve seen a student make false accusations against a faculty member (female on female). And then I have myriad colleagues who are married to former students. I assume that in those cases it was romance and not harrassment. But if the romance had been terminated, would it have become harrassment? Is there a “Stockholm Syndrome” at work?

   — Old Hand    Mar 4, 01:13 PM    #

9. UGA Anthro Grad – Did you think she concocted the complaints that predated her appointment? You exemplify exactly why women fail to report or back off making a formal complaint… people like you who smear, smear, smear even when the record clearly speaks for itself. BTW is your name Ben Bount?

   — not surprised    Mar 4, 01:54 PM    #

10. re: UGA anthro grad, give me a break. Go online at redandblack.com and read the allegations by DIFFERENT people, all of which portray very similar stories of wildly inappropriate behavior on the part of Professor Blount. And be sure to check out the San Antonio paper this week (maybe Wed.) — I’ve heard rumors that they are doing a story, and that he has two violations at his new institution. Gee, how shocking! I personally know (and am friends with) the UGA anthro professor who had the courage to come forward; your portrayal of her is sickening and grossly inaccurate. Shame on you.

    — UGA faculty    Mar 4, 01:55 PM    #

11. And for the record, The Red & Black fully credited the Banner-Herald story, which the college newspaper clearly noted in the story. The Banner-Herald story, however, did not have the information that Blount worked at UTSA, nor did it talk to provost there. That was in the Red & Black.

    — EJ    Mar 4, 02:32 PM    #

12. UGA anthro grad – who told you she was so difficult and unreliable? Blount? Given the long history of his bad behavior both before and after I find your ‘attack the victim’ by rumor and innuendo disturbing. For heavens sake, the university also found formally that he had violated with OTHER women even before she made a complaint (read the documents). I assume your goal is to remind women they should never report harassment (or rape) because when they do they will be raked over the coals. Back to the dark ages we go….

    — UGA alumnus    Mar 4, 04:15 PM    #

13. I was at UGA as a student in anthropology in the 1990s. What kills me about this is that there is no discussion about how much other faculty knew about what Blount was doing. How could they not know? He was awful to so many of us. Even if he didn’t try to kiss us there was the constant sexualized talk, the asking us to come to his house for “movies” and the touching. The junior faculty were afraid for their tenure cases and never stood up to him or stood up for their students. They should be ashamed.

    — AT UGA IN 90s    Mar 4, 04:59 PM    #

14. I went through the documents posted by the two main papers reporting on the case… And the entire situation looks downright appalling. The administration clearly knew of Blount’s pattern of harassment, yet was reluctant to confront him or even deter him from his abusive actions. All he got was a slap on the wrist before a colleague brought yet another case to light, and even then he was able to get away to another secure post. I wonder how many other Blounts are out there who are getting by because of their seniority… This case should prompt a serious reconsideration of how academic structures can effectively deter what is obviously an egregious and repeating pattern of sexual harassment by older men against women.

    — umich alumnus    Mar 4, 06:46 PM    #

15. Purported UGA Anthro Grad, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I came to UGA at the same time as the prof in question and have known her for ten years now. She’s honest to the point of bluntness and characterized by a fierce integrity.
    Far from being “difficult,” she’s won teaching awards from UGA. She’s also an academic star who didn’t need anybody’s help to get to Full Professor. Malicious attacks such as yours cannot hide the truth: a serial sexual predator was finally caught by someone who dared stand up to him, at great personal cost to herself but to the benefit of future students and junior faculty. I only hope that with a little more maturity you will be able to do as much for your own students, should you ever be lucky enough to have some.

    — UGA now-Senior Faculty    Mar 4, 08:19 PM    #

16. One of the most striking aspects of reading the complaints about Blount is the lengths to which women allowed him to continue his egregious and unmistakable sexual intrusions. I would have immediately slapped him the moment he put his hands anywhere near my thigh, let alone try to kiss me. My momma didn’t raise me to be no fool. I would have walked directly to the police and filed a sexual assault charge. One person wrote “I was paralyzed.” Paralyzed? Girl, what Cinderella world did you grow up in?

    — marci    Mar 5, 11:22 AM    #

17. Yes, Marci, especially if he was your professor or major advisor, had full control over your course grade or academic future, and had the tacit approval of the administration so your complaint and the complaints of others would have been ignored at best and used against you at worst. You’re the one living in the fairy tale world if you think slapping his hand away would have solved anything and wouldn’t have negatively affected you.

    — Beth    Mar 5, 04:09 PM    #

18. Story from San Antonio paper:
    http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA030608.01A.UTSA.38e20b6.html

    — UGA faculty    Mar 6, 01:03 AM    #

19. I am not as amazed and I am appalled at the fact that my testimony in support of Dr. Blount was left out of the OID Memorandum. I was a graduate student at UTSA and I can no longer complete my studies because of all of this. I know CP and I believe based upon our conversations that her story is suspect. CP met with me to tell me her story just before OID went forward with an investigation against Blount. I felt that she was recruiting me to join the sexual harassment allegation bandwagon against Blount. Both of the females that came forward in the Department with allegations against Blount were protected by the faculty and awarded exemptions and favors that other students weren’t offered as an obvious sign of protection. And, I was blacklisted by the Department faculty for my supporting and defending statements of the accused that countered their allegations.

    Graduate students at UTSA in the anthro dept. have been discussing about the sexual harassment charges at U. of Georgia against Blount since 2005. So, we knew about the allegations because some faculty were discussing it with us. I believe that those discussions may have swayed some students to make false allegations against Blount. At the very least it is a truth that should be considered in the investigations. Regardless, Blount was not charged with sexual harassment violations at UTSA. I am a female who opposed what I feel are false allegations that took place at UTSA regardless of the allegations at U. of Georgia. And, I received no protection and in fact have suffered needlessly.

    I suffered a brutal attack and rape in 2000 and I believe I would have been pushed over the edge from this event if were not for the Rape Crisis Center and their hotline. So, I fully understand the incredible importance of protection and legal rights of victims of abuse and rape. However, I do not believe that the allegations that occurred at UTSA were substantiated for lack of credible evidence and OID could not and did not prosecute. Yet, these women were protected and those of us that opposed the allegations suffered persistent mistreatment by the Department faculty. I cannot help but feel that the faculty wanted to get rid of Blount because of the rumors leaking from U. of Georgia.

    Obviuosly, I stood to gain nothing and to lose everything by defending Blount. You never want to rub anybody the wrong way. I think we all want justice and equality. All of us would like to believe that if we were in a bad situation someone would help us out if they had information that could help you and support your defense. Unfortunately, there is a huge cost to offer that support.

    — Anonymous    Mar 6, 04:53 PM    #

20. Anonymous: Okay – so now we have 8 students and a professor at 2 different institutions who also say that they were harassed, and he has been found formally in violation at two institutions, and also resigned rather than complete another investigation. But, you think the 9th gal is obviously making it up. And you think it ok to spread nastiness by calling her a liar. You say you were saved by support you got when you were raped: imagine how it would have been if people you worked with went around telling everyone you were lying about it. That is exactly what you are doing to her. Shame on you. Shame indeed.

    — Amazed    Mar 6, 07:01 PM    #

21. Amazed, you have your facts wrong.

    — Anonymous    Mar 6, 07:36 PM    #

22. Anonymous, I am glad that you received help as a victim of rape and you should be proud that you survived a horrible attack, but I do not understand your reasoning for not believing the girls. After reading all the reports, I am surprised that anyone can not see this man as a sexual predator who has a serious problem. There are years between the documented cases. He also has seems to have specific MO. He used his position as an established professor as a guide and mentor to lure these women into a trusted relationship and then pushed them in physical contact. He did this one he invited the student to discuss his research and her academic goals in his office, he lured the professor by being a mentor on her way to ten-year, he made physical contact that men make when they are interested or your boyfriend makes on CD who wanted to discuss her comprehensive exams, and pursed physical contact with the student at UTSA when she was upset and having material problems. Although the cases at UTSA do not seem as extreme, if CD did not come forward than Blount’s history shows that there is high cause and reason to believe things would have gone furthered- we know this now because of what happened at UGA.
    At the time UTSA probably did not have evidence any case on UGA do to the fact UGA and all former employees cannot commit slander. UTSA OID document states that couldn’t establish sexual harassment but that by Blount’s own admission he violated UTSA code that of in of itself was the reasoning of Blount’s removal from classes and cut salary.
    Furthermore, San Antonio express news writes:
    “If I am guilty of anything, I argue it is showing affection excessively and not any kind of harassment,” Blount said. “You can’t do that now with younger students. Behavior that had been acceptable for most of my career became unacceptable, and it took me a little while to figure that out.”
    He, a professor and editor of magazine, did not realize after the cases at UGA that his behavior at UTSA was unacceptable. It took him from 1991 till 2006 of accusations that his behavior was inappropriate. I fined that highly unlikely- you lose a job from your behavior and you don’t learn that it is inappropriate. I fined it unbelievable that man with his education and one who studies human beings, behavior, and culture took him years to learn his conduct was inappropriate. Even if he never committed sexual harassment- he should have realized that his behavior was causing accusations and stop those behaviors of physical contact.
    Again San Antonio express news reports:
    “When she got up to leave, Blount said, ‘I put my arm around her and kissed her, it had nothing to do with sex, it was a reassuring kiss, kind of on the side of the lips…’
    In the OID document it writes a few times that Blount stated the kiss was consensual. The language suggests that the kiss was more than a reassuring kiss and that of wanted physical sexual relationship. Also, would not Blount push the fact in his case that the kiss was not sexual and not on lips over and over again in his defense and not the fact that the kiss was consensual? Now this last part may not be the strongest defense, but I believe all of this is evidence to the fact that Blount is a sexual predator. I have no way to support or dispute your treatment at UTSA. I write this because as a female I feel like I should defend these two girls at UTSA you accuse of lying. I am finding it hard to understand that after the reports of UGA came out you did not rethink or question your thought about what occurred at UTSA. You write that:
    “I cannot help but feel that the faculty wanted to get rid of Blount because of the rumors leaking from U. of Georgia.”
    Yet, UTSA admits that they heard rumors before hiring him, but hired him anyway. Why would they want to fire him for the rumors at UGA that they already heard?
    “David Gabler, a spokesman for UTSA, said administrators did look into the scuttlebutt, but found nothing that would “necessitate a withdrawal of the employment offer.”
    San Antonio express news.

    I think you need to look back and think about your own thoughts that these women were lying. You gain nothing to defend Blount- but expose your own mistreatment by the school and Department and belief that you were falsely treated (this may all be true but this want you gain). I ask you what do these women gain, if they were lying? Lying about being in a humiliating situation and being preyed on?
    You also say that there was a bandwagon- one has two people consider bandwagon.
    If there were rumors of sexual harassment of Blount’s pass at UTSA of course women and I think most people, would discus it. As a woman, I would want to look into the rumors to defend and protect myself. Simply discussing rumors does not mean people believe it is true.

    — nameless    Mar 7, 10:51 AM    #

23. Reading these stories is very painful as they continue to confirm just how widespread the problem in academia is. Sexual harassment in the corporate world is equally widespread, but I think the world outside of academia has no idea just how serious the problem is and often times just how protected the predators are within patriarchal structures.

    I have been sexually harassed as a doctoral student for the last few years by someone that was famous for his crimes. I suffered in silence, not wanting to jeopardize the completion of my long academic journey and the gain of a tenure track position. The environment encouraged us to take care of it ourselves even as it was mentioned to faculty and other complaints were made. Everyone knew about this aged predator – faculty and certainly every single cohort of female students. The problem is that every doctoral student understands how important the relationship is between the committee, particularly the advisor, and the doctoral candidate. Things become very subjective at this level. Many of the victims are still frightened of the political ramifications of a complaint, hence, no formal complaint was lodged outside of the department.

    I always wondered how faculty could NOT get involved since just one person with enough time and energy could cost everyone their positions and certainly the reputation of the department with a lawsuit and helpful media. Some of these predators are quite aware of the power dynamics and they use threats to gain silence. If a predator is so known for his crimes and yet still employed, there is a pretty fair assumption in that environment that what the predator has done is acceptable or a nuisance at worst.

    What seems to be missed her both by my department and many others is how much damage has been caused to people’s lives and how much stress they have endured. In my own case, there hasn’t even been an investigation to find out just how many victims there are, nor any outreach to the victims towards healing. Justice, acknowledgement of the damage and a move towards faculty and students gaining an understanding of how sexual harassment affects people’s lives (anxiety, depression, etc.) all contribute greatly to healing. For many of us, we will never see any such things.

    I have begun therapy and now lost my unborn child in the trauma. I would encourage anyone currently doing research in the area to do surveys focusing on doctoral students. I would venture to bet that the numbers of sexual harassment are well above that of undergraduate students. I have never felt so powerless in my life than I have as a doctoral student. I will never again remain silent on this issue as it has caused irreparable harm to my life. I wish courage and strength to all of those students who are suffering and encourage them to follow the sexual harassment policies of the university and go straight to the person named in the policy who receives such complaints. If we remain silent, we may gain our degrees, but we leave the field wide open for those future cohorts to suffer in exactly the same way. The most unfortunate aspect that I have seen on this topic is that an environment where sexual harassment has been tolerated, at the very least, also encourages male students to emulate those behaviors. There were vehement protests from male students against female students making complaints against their harassers in our department. Oddly enough, those same male students were the subject of complaints of sexual harassment from their own colleagues. I wonder if that is also the case in other departments where predatory professors are also being exposed? I wonder and lament about the type of academic legacy that we leave for the future. I am not sure I ever want to work in such an environment.

    — Suffered in Silence    Mar 9, 02:39 PM    #

24. Wow! Blount did not rape anyone. As I stated I do not have an opinion about UGA because I do not know the people, or the facts. However, I do know all parties involved at UTSA. I gave a statement to OID during the investigation – so, I was involved. The UTSA female in question requested to meet with me to give her side of the story prior to the investigation by OID. The mere fact that she did this called up my suspicion radar. My radar acts when something is really out of place. And, as I stated the female at UTSA made me feel by many of her actions surrounding the events that she was recruiting females on a sexual harassment allegation bandwagon against Blount.

    — Anonymous    Mar 11, 03:55 PM    #

25. I was also a graduate student at UGA in the 1990’s. There was a “culture” among the female graduate students of warning incoming female students about Ben Blount’s behavior. The senior female students pulled aside the junior female students (including me) within the first few days of the fall semester, and we were told that this was likely to happen. While at UGA, I learned that more than one female student in my cohort (of around a dozen) were “propositioned” by Ben Blount in much the same way as described in the publicly-available allegations. Every cohort had at least one or two women who were propositioned or harassed in some way. We were also instructed by other grad students to write everything down because “someday it will come out”. There were several late-night discussions about whether or not people should come forward, but obviously there was a lot of fear of reprisal. We also felt a great deal of anxiety over Ben Blount’s wife, who was/is a well-liked and respected member of the faculty. Now that I am faculty elsewhere, I regret that there was not a concerted effort in the 1990’s to get this guy removed from interactions with students (at the very least). But, we all felt pretty helpless at the time.

    In defense of the other faculty at UGA, in recent conversations it has become clear to me that at least some of them were completely unaware of his behavior. I can’t say that none of them knew what was going on, however. There was just not universal awareness.

    I don’t know who the other UGA anthro grad is, but I do know that Ben Blount’s male students while I was at UGA had completely different experiences with this man. To male students, he was a “buddy” and supportive advisor. It hurts, but sometimes the people we like deeply disappoint us. Yes, he may have been a great professor in your experience, but that does not mean he was not a sexual predator. You didn’t see this side of him, but neither did half the people with whom he interacted.

    Re: the other alum’s comment about the junior faculty “whistle blower”… it barely warrants rebuttal, but I must say something. I know this prof quite well. She is a great advocate and teacher, but she does not suffer fools. Only a fool would call her “difficult”…this is code for “doesn’t act the way I think a woman should act”. If she was male, no one would ever think to call her “difficult”. It is clear to me who is being “vindictive”. So, you didn’t like her, she was “mean” to you, whatever, big deal. Be better than this.

    — Another former UGA grad student    Mar 12, 08:40 AM    #

26. Following up on Suffered in Silence’s comments, I feel that the lessons to be learned from this are most compelling in the domain of social context of academic environments. As she says, graduate students, esp. females, are in a particularly powerless zone that lasts for years and can have long repercussions on one’s personal wellbeing. There is an infantilizing process in graduate training, in which grown adults learn to enact subservient roles in order to ‘climb the ladder’. As the admirable prof and students who pulled the curtain on Ben Blount intimated, they felt they had to act in order to prevent others from the ordeals of his predations—the saving grace in many graduate environments are these informal support networks mostly among women, that counteract somewhat the extreme vulnerability of a student who has staked money, heart, mind and future to be where they are.

    The environment for anth grad students at UGA was not always a safe one, and we dealt with it by circling up, warning each other, or withdrawing, all classic behaviors in these kinds of cases. Going to higher authority did not seem safe at all at the time, and after reading the pabulum letters ‘of reprimand’ sent to Blount (“watch a video!!!?), I think we were absolutely right not to feel that there was true recourse or protection there. And I must say, publishing the private complaint letters of the people involved seems to me a gross violation of their assumption of confidentiality when they wrote those letters to the dean, etc. That kind of journalism (Red and Black I suppose) dissuades victims from coming forward in the future, if they see that their descriptions of what happened to them can so easily be made public.

    I would hate to see this portrayed as a ‘bad apple’ case, because though judging from his defense statements Professor Blount clearly has serious delusions and psychological problems (and at the same time could have been an “excellent professor” in many ways—therein lies the the tragic, fascinating complexity of us reflexive free-will primates) , I think the more important thing to reckon with is that this is an egregious symptom of a generalized environment of power wielding in academia that is all about survivals from medieval feudal social relations and post-modern competitive capitalist stress mongering, and has little to do with what we know about creating optimal environments for creative and critical learning and apprenticeship. It is also not entirely about UTSA, UGA or the anthro program there, of which I could say many wonderful things. This case is an egregious example on a spectrum of other kinds of things that squelch rather than bolster the best in our students . And we need to make people aware of how these patterns affect EVERYONE adversely, not only the direct victims, by creating environments of stress, mistrust and closure that kill creative energies DEAD. It reminds me to be mindfully critical of our institutions always, even (especially!) once we have made it ‘to the top of the ladder’ —we still have a long way to go in reforming academia.

    — yet another former uga grad student    Mar 13, 12:00 AM    #

27. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA031308.01A.PROF.388a955.html

    — anon    Mar 13, 06:50 PM    #

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