HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, POLITICAL AUTOPHAGY EDITION: More professors subjected to Title IX investigations.
This week brought news of two more college professors who faced Title IX investigations for allegedly sexually harassing a student and an executive assistant. Both learned the hard way that due process is no longer allowed on college campuses, even for professors and administrators.
First we learned of Oberlin theatre and dance professor Roger Copeland, who was subjected to a brief Title IX investigation (which was dropped) because he spoke sharply to a female student. That’s it. That’s all he did, but because Copeland is a male and the student was a female (and no man can ever criticize a woman these days) Oberlin considered, however briefly, that the situation might have been caused by sexism.
Even though the Title IX investigation was dropped, Copeland was still investigated for hurting the student’s feelings. He was allegedly told by an administrator that it didn’t matter if witnesses could say the alleged verbal abuse didn’t happen the way the accusing student described, because “what matters is that the student felt unsafe.”
This opens the door for a whole new set of accusations against professors and other administrators, as any student who gets verbally reprimanded can claim abuse, thanks to the federal government’s dumbing down of what constitutes a “hostile environment.” Conduct need no longer be “pervasive” or even ongoing, a single incident, involving a particularly sensitive student, is enough to ensnare a professor in a due process-free investigation.
Copeland hired a lawyer (a right most students across the country are denied or can’t afford) and was told by the university that if he didn’t meet with them without his attorney present, they would bring him before the Professional Conduct Review Committee. Copeland and his attorney told them to go for it (I’d like to imagine they were laughing), and they never heard back from the administration.
We also learned this week about University of California Berkeley law professor Sujit Choudhry, who essentially faced double jeopardy for his alleged offense because UC President Janet Napolitano was facing criticism. Choudhry was accused of hugging his female executive assistant and kissing her on the cheek. The assistant, Tyann Sorrell, told administrators that Choudhry hugged and kissed her in this manner “five to six times a day.”
She apparently never told Choudhry she was uncomfortable by his actions, which he said he only did once or twice a week to show support. When Sorrell finally did mention the conduct to Choudry — after she complained to the school and had an investigation launched — she told him in an email: “I know you do not mean anything by [your actions] other than, perhaps a warm and friendly greeting.”
She gave the school the names of two witnesses, who backed up Choudhry’s version of events that the hugging and kissing was rare.
No matter, the school sanctioned Choudry by cutting his pay 10 percent for the year, forcing him to pay out of pocket for workplace coaching, writing an apology to Sorrell and constantly having those who investigated him looking over his shoulder.
Lesson: Lawyer up, and punch back twice as hard.