August 13, 2008

All U. of Iowa Professors Told to Undergo Training to Avoid Sexual Harassment

The University of Iowa ordered all professors and staff members today to undergo training in how to avoid sexual harassment after a political-science professor at the university was charged with asking four female students for sexual favors in return for better grades.

According to The Des Moines Register, the professor, Arthur H. Miller, faces criminal charges for accepting bribes based on allegations that he told the female students he would give them A’s if they would expose their breasts and allow him to fondle them. As part of the criminal investigation, the university police seized e-mail messages from Mr. Miller’s computer in which he offered the quid pro quo. At least some of the students, the article said, granted the sexual favors.

The professor, who is 66 and has been at Iowa since 1985, also faces an investigation by the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. Both investigations are continuing, but according to another article in the Register, Sally Mason, the university’s president, sent an e-mail message to all faculty and staff members saying Iowa would make sexual-harassment training universal and mandatory. Until now, only supervisors have been required to undergo such training.

“While every person is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” Ms. Mason said in the message, “I want to state strongly and unequivocally that such conduct will not be tolerated.”

Mr. Miller referred the Des Moines newspaper to his lawyer, who did not return the paper’s call. The professor is on leave pending the investigation by the equal-opportunity office. —Robin Wilson

Comments

1. Sheer administrative ass-covering. As if the rest of the faculty don’t know that an A for a lay is unkosher. It’s a total waste of time, and will not constitute a legal defense. Whichever administrator ordered that should go on the job market immediately. That kind of idiocy is in high demand these days, and he could make a bundle.

   — Noodles    Aug 13, 07:42 PM    #

2. ….training in how to avoid sexual harassment….

   Obviously had he had the training, no one would have found out about the fondling.

   — Pass or Harass    Aug 13, 07:54 PM    #

3. No, it’s “sexual-harassment training”. They will have a long line of profs.

   — Michael Pyshnov    Aug 13, 08:09 PM    #

4. Noodles –

   Subsequent preventive action is never a defense against suits like this. UI surely does not believe otherwise. Such actions can prevent future incidents, however. It can also help contain the university’s liability insurance premiums.

   — CU Alum    Aug 13, 08:19 PM    #

5. So, one idiot does something that everyone knows is wrong, and all faculty and staff have to attend sexual harassment training? This is completely ridiculous. I hope the tenured faculty stand up and say BS.

   — kyle David    Aug 13, 08:57 PM    #

6. The idea that training would have made in difference in this prof’s behavior is absurd. Perhaps if a professor murders a student, the university should mandate that all faculty undergo training in how to avoid deliberately killing someone.

   And what will happen to those who refuse the mandate?

   — Bardolph    Aug 13, 08:58 PM    #

7. Subsequent remediation will not do much for this case, but a wholesale program might head off future lawsuits. And while the training might not change behavior for the truly numb-skulled, it couldn’t hurt to build general awareness.

   Most of my colleagues are clueless as to what constitutes sexual harrassment and what doesn’t and that makes our institution extremely vulnerable.

   Whatever you think about what goes on, the lawsuits are costly and the money would inarguably be better spent on front end prevention, not to mention instruction.

   — Judith    Aug 13, 09:16 PM    #

8. An attempt at an explanation for Noodles and his like-minded fellows…
   howadminworks.wordpress.com

   — anonadmin    Aug 13, 09:56 PM    #

9. anonadmin, please post your P.O. Box or another mailing address to which I can send a dry cleaning invoice. I wet myself reading your blog. Considering I had aspargus for dinner, I prefer to professionally clean my trousers rather than run them through the wash. As you continue to blog about How Admin Works, please warn readers about the content of your material (will it provide a chuckle, or a guffaw?, or be so damned funny someone might wet himself?).

   — NYCEdPhD    Aug 13, 10:29 PM    #

10. Nobody at the university probably really cares much, the job of higher administrators at any university is to appear that they care…
    It will be awesome if the dumb students that agreed will then try to sue the university and say, “They were babysitting us, they shouldn’t have let this happen!” It’s sad that it did, but what’s sadder is that students who are legally adults often can take no responsibility for their own decisions. What a joke this whole thing is.

    — Legend    Aug 13, 10:57 PM    #

11. Wow! Seems that some of us need to learn about power and sexual harassment in order to understand an attempt to help even just a little bit. I love the unashamed cynics and their willingness to express their view of the world. Maybe they have a better suggestion…

    — Lynn    Aug 14, 06:00 AM    #

12. Legend — Thanks for illustrating the need for the training better than anyone else. Please post your location so we can be sure our daughters give it a wide berth.

    — TGH    Aug 14, 06:10 AM    #

13. President Mason should be given training in constructing sentences in English so that she does not explicitly condemn traditional jurisprudence values such as presumption of innocence. She does so in the quote given by the use of an indefinite antecedant and a dangling modifier. While “we all knew what she meant”, it’s not what she said, and one expects more careful word use, even from administrators.

    — iowaalum63    Aug 14, 07:30 AM    #

14. What’s the big deal? The faculty of our university and, I believe, of all state universities in Maryland took an online sexual harassment tutorial a couple of years ago. It took about twenty minutes.

    — Ed    Aug 14, 07:34 AM    #

15. I really wish more administrators would require this on a yearly basis for faculty and staff of universities. My predator sexually harassed for 30 years and still has a clean record. He even harassed the cleaning lady. Everyone knows, even the security guards, yet, the incidents have been laughed off. Boys will be boys, you know.

    — more training is needed    Aug 14, 07:46 AM    #

16. When I was at UIowa, it was common knowledge that the majority of professors in the music school were sleeping with their students, male and female. The oboe professor was notorious for sleeping with every female student he could…and the administration knew about it, and never once cared enough to do anything. This “breaking story” is simply the tip of the iceberg….

    — Mischa    Aug 14, 08:03 AM    #

17. At my institution all faculty have to complete on-line training on thi (and several other things) annually.

    I am convinced it would have NO affect at all on blatant acts by Monty Python-esque characters like the one described in this article.

    — Baal    Aug 14, 08:30 AM    #

18. Sexual harassment training may not prevent a likely offender from committing the act, but it may raise awareness in his or her peers such that they are able to respond appropriately. It helps to have the institution behind you when you step forward.

    — Debbie C    Aug 14, 08:41 AM    #

19. Why does Iowa seem to have so many “issues” involving inappropriate sexual behavior?

    Is this administration just more open about publicizing its mistakes than other universities?

    — Ex-Prof    Aug 14, 08:43 AM    #

20. To all those that think sexual harassment training is a waste of time, you are not living in the real world. This is standard procedure in most companies, and can be used in a defense against a future law suit.

    — Sam    Aug 14, 08:53 AM    #

21. Do you know what really is behind the training program and all the regulations? No, you don’t.
    This is it: Next time a professor takes sex as bribe, he will not be charged and will not go to court.
    He will only be responsible for violating the regulation and not learning from training.
    That’s how administration works.

    — Michael Pyshnov    Aug 14, 08:58 AM    #

22. I’ve had the training. It’s not just about male profs having sex with students. It also covers,for example, reporting of incidents. And no, administrators don’t always do anything about such incidents because the victims will not testify. As a school director, I once had to deal with a staff person stalking a program director – both were females. The victim didn’t want to report it so we dealt with it internally – I warned the stalker that her behavior would be reported if there was another incident. She did stop the offending behavior.

    — Jerry    Aug 14, 09:26 AM    #

23. Training as a defense should be based on the efficacy of training. Does anyone have any evidence that training actually changes behavior? Here’s at least one study showing that it made men worse:

    The Unexpected Effects of a Sexual Harassment Educational Program
    Shereen G. Bingham
    Lisa L. Scherer

    Male participants were less likely than other groups to perceive coercive sexual harassment, less willing to report sexual harassment, and more likely to blame the victim.

    — Just wonderin'    Aug 14, 09:31 AM    #

24. If, in a situation like this, an administration chose to send round to its faculty a memo delineating the legal and ethical principles it applies to questions of sexual harassment, fine. I might even read it if it weren’t too badly written. But the idea of compulsory “training” is repellent as well as condescending. How much ideological twaddle is to be smuggled in under the aegis of such “training”? To what extent will it be a power-play on the part of some faction of the faculty or administration? I thought compulsory chapel went out the window decades ago.

    If I were at U of Iowa, I daresay some urgent business—a poker game, for instance—would render me unable to participate in this mandatory nonsense.

    — Fossil    Aug 14, 09:47 AM    #

25. NYCEdPhD,

    You had the best comment on here. I’m off to the cleaners now myself after reading yours. Thanks for making my day!

    — funny    Aug 14, 09:49 AM    #

26. Yawn! Mandarin professors who still teach the same way their great grand-professors taught asserting that they are above any need for education, and that they could run the institution better than the administration (if only someone would recognize their untapped genius).

    Sexual harassment training is probably an unfurtunate necessity at this particular time. Required participation does not imply that participants are themselves, or would be, sexual harassers. Think of it as a seminar in one facet of cultural literacy.

    — Senior Prof    Aug 14, 10:05 AM    #

27. Perhaps the Chronicle should consider moderating its blogs. The drivel that has begun to seep across the sites shows little respect for the readership and that disrespect taints the Chronicle as much as it does the authors.

    — Jim    Aug 14, 10:11 AM    #

28. Note to Sally Mason, Wannabe Re-education Camp Commissar for the Cultural Left: Forget about getting one thin dime from this U. of I. alumnus, and I am taking that legacy out of my will this morning. I urge other alumni to do the same.

    Aren’t U. of I faculty asked to read guidelines on harassment and informed about what constitutes dismissal for cause, even for those blessed with tenure? Are students made aware of guidelines on harassment? No, it’s probably easier to insult every single faculty member and assume guilt on their part than to get rid of this pathetic professor and make an example of him.

    Shame on you, Sally Mason. Your power play may get you points in the lofty circles you move in, but let’s hope the good people of Iowa won’t put up with it. Let’s hope the State Legislature looks into your handling of this mess.

    — roadrage    Aug 14, 10:20 AM    #

29. Virtually all sexual harassment cases that reach court are not as much about the sexual harassment but primarily about how the institution (read administrators, dept. chairs, faculty members, etc.) did not respond adequately when they knew or should have know about the sexual harassment. If all the people who wrote negative comments about sexual harassming prevention training know how to respond when someone reports to them behavior that might be considered as sexual harassment, and if they are aware that in some instances they themselves might be liable and sued in their individual capacity and if they all know that sexual harassment is more than using sex as a bribe, and if they all know how to intervene when they observe behavior which might be sexual harassment, then maybe, just maybe, they might not need the training.

    — Bernice Sandler    Aug 14, 11:04 AM    #

30. Are the professors at UIowa unionized? Were they involved in the design and implementation of the training? And does anyone know the penalty for not completing the training? I’ve seen a lot a “canned” training that is irrelevant to academia. Quid pro quo sexual harassment like the case here is an obvious legal violation. It’s the hostile environment types of harassment where awareness is most important, and not just in terms of sexual harassment, but race, gender, religion etc. The 1998 Supreme Court decisions on sex harassment instruct employers to take steps such as training to reduce liability. I think if administrators worked together with professors and their unions to make training relevant and non-punitive, perhaps an agreeable middle ground could be found.

    — michelle    Aug 14, 11:16 AM    #

31. Heaven for a sexual predator is a college campus! For those of us who study sexual predators we can see the behaviors clearly.

    I can bet he picked his prey based on who wouldn’t tell, who would be “open” to his advances and calculated how to win their trust, confidence and numb them to the idea. Only then did he launched the proposal.

    Here the prey is still nice and young, but they are “adults.” So if you get charged, it’s “just” sexual harassment.

    There are many, many people who practice on campuses – we just choose not to see them this way because it would tarnish our image. I hate to break it to you, but their behaviors, stalking and choice of victims is well-thought and purposeful. Don’t be confused by the age and they’re “adult” prey so it’s OK.

    Folks, we have a lot of sexual predators in our midst, and until we all wake up and start seeing it for what it is, this will continue.

    Offer an “A” and get….satisfaction. What a deal.

    Until we start recognizing the real issue here, we leave many of our students open them.

    — Wazoo    Aug 14, 11:39 AM    #

32. This guy really put the terms of the quid pro quo in an email! Oh my there is a serious generation gap here.

    http://rightwingprofessor.blogspot.com/

    — rightwingprofessor    Aug 14, 11:55 AM    #

33. Hold the phone! His wife says he didn’t do it. So he’s got that goin for him.
    Training sessions are always more fun with food:
    http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

    — Just wonderin'    Aug 14, 12:13 PM    #

34. Knowing the law on sexual harassment makes it much easier to understand this report.

    In 1998, in two landmark cases (Burlington Industries v. Ellerth and Faragher v. Boca Raton) the U.S. Supreme Court established the prongs of a defense an employer could use to defend itself in sexual harassment complaints. The first prong is having a Harassment & Discrimination Policy. The second prong is training all employees in it. (More information on this available at www.eeoc.gov.)

    Universities as well as business employers have been increasingly training employees as part of their risk management strategies since these decisions were issued.

    U of Iowa’s decision to mandate training won’t affect the current case but will affect its liability in future cases.

    Moreover, in some situations employees don’t intend to harass other employees or students but are unaware of the gray areas. Training can potentially reduce unintentional acts of harassment.

    — Saranna Thornton    Aug 14, 12:30 PM    #

35. George Orwell would love this. He would absolutely love it!

    — 1984    Aug 14, 12:48 PM    #

36. What this guy did was OBVIOUSLY wrong! However the response is disproportionate and ridiculous. I hope the sexual harassment training will instruct professors how to fight the epidemic of FALSE CHARGES levied by female employees against males for personal, political, and ideological reasons.

    — Prof. X    Aug 14, 12:56 PM    #

37. This guy must be brought to cout. If proven, he must go to jail. No other measures, and nothing against university. Justice, not communist tricks.
    Currently it’s this: “femals” are demonstrating – Take Back the Night. One young lady is complaining of rape, please note – complaining to the administration. Administration does not contact police and tells her not to contact police. The only result – more communist demonstrations.

    — Michael Pyshnov    Aug 14, 01:20 PM    #

38. The exact same thing happened where I work – faculty members become defendants in a huge sexual harrassment lawsuit, and shortly thereafter, everyone on staff has to attend A 3-hour “Sexual harrassment and Diversity” seminar.

    — Deborah    Aug 14, 02:03 PM    #

39. Re: #27
    I am partially in sympathy. Reading the Chronicle blogs can be a glimpse of psyches we would rather not know. But, I’m still reluctant to endorse censorship as the only solution. I agree some postings present a sad picture of academe and the “life of the mind” [ definite grist for the blog-mill) , but they are also ostensibly posted by those who are our colleagues… warts, narrowness and all. So, just stop reading for a while when it gets to you and enjoy those who use blogs constructively.

    — K.Lee    Aug 14, 02:13 PM    #

40. They could invite Sexual Harassment Panda to visit.

    — Kyle David    Aug 14, 02:27 PM    #

41. “One young lady is complaining of rape, please note – complaining to the administration. Administration does not contact police and tells her not to contact police. “

    Exactly, and some people actaully wonder why things like this are such a big problem at public schools (of all levels). Want to be a sexual predator? Don’t want to be held accountable? Become a public school teacher or prof.

    — TCK    Aug 14, 04:44 PM    #

42. Amazing to me this story has 44+ comments, but the Higher Education Act story has 2 so far. Which do you think is more central to higher educ mission and will have deeper, broader impact?

    — T-squared    Aug 14, 05:00 PM    #

43. It’s Lewis Carrol worthy.

    “Verdict first, then the trial”

    — Techie    Aug 15, 12:34 AM    #

44. Has Professor Miller been evaluated for fronto-temporal dementia (e.g. Pick’s Disease)? His behavior is so “out there” that one can’t help but question his mental competence.

    — lyophil    Aug 15, 11:36 AM    #

45. As a female undergraduate, I can say that were a professor to act in that way to me, I would a) march right into the dean’s office and b) be incredibly concerned that other professors would hear of the case, feel some sympathy towards their probably otherwise pretty decent/smart colleague, and think poorly of me for making a messy situation. Making a fuss about things, isn’t considered very professional, you know, and it’s easy (as you can see from these comments) to think that a young woman upset over just being asked to lift her shirt is some immature crazy feminist who can’t handle life. The reality is that most administrations’ policies make the perceived cost-benefit of reporting “small” sexual harassment issues just not worth it. Also, if they’re just dismissed, they’d probably just a letter in their file and get hired someone else. Unless the victim can make it googleable (i.e., going to the local/campus press and getting them to cover the complaint), a student’s complaint probably won’t matter at all.

    — ivyundergrad    Aug 15, 05:03 PM    #

46. A little late to this party, but I am wondering about Prof. Miller’s career prior to U of I. If I have the numbers correct, he arrived at U of I at age 43.

    One thing we know is our background checking function must be more thorough to give us a fighting chance of heading off the obvious cases who are on the run from their prior institutions.

    Blog-on!

    — Peggy    Aug 19, 05:18 PM    #

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