Regular commenter S. Rivlin emailed me to describe a distressing situation in academia and to ask for advice:
Dear Janet,
I write to you to solicit your opinion on a recent grievance case I am privy to at my university. I hope you’ll find the time to respond, considering that you are back from your Sabbatical and fully engrossed in teaching and mothering.
The grievance was filed against a head (a man) of a research institute for harassment, and against the chairman of the department of which that institute belongs to and the dean of the medical school, for not taking action to stop the harassment. The grievant is a faculty member of the institute (a woman and a close friend of mine) who did everything possible to avoid the grievance process by attempting to resolve the issues internally, but to no avail.
All the men against whom the grievance was filed are considered administrators by the university and as such were provided with legal council by the legal office of the university. Faculty members have the choice of going through the grievance process with or without a legal council of their own however, if they choose to have a legal council they must hire an attorney from outside the university and be responsible for their own legal expenses. The grievant here chose to have an attorney to represent her in the proceedings.
Now mind you, the grievance process main aim is to resolve internal disputes by dealing with them in-house without resorting to the outside court system. Actually, the bylaws by which all faculty members and administrators agree to abide include the grievance process. It is thus understood that any grieving faculty member must use this process and prove to the grievance committee members assembled for the hearings that the grievance is justified and that the wrong done must be corrected. Once the proceedings are over, the committee must decide whether or not the grievant has proved her allegations and if she did, must conclude that the wrong must be corrected. If the grievant has failed to prove her case, she could still decide then to proceed through the court system on her own time and expense.
In this particular grievance case, the grievant proved, using documents and witnesses, that harassment had occurred and that she had suffered emotional, financial and professional damages. The grievance committee agreed that the harassing party had used his power of authority to hinder the grievant’s career, including her ability to apply and secure NIH grants, and that the Chairman of the department and the Dean of the medical school did not follow the grievant request to intervene on her behalf. Actually the Chairman and the Dean ignored an action advice by outside experts’ that they themselves had sought and received.
The whole affair, from the beginning of the harassment until the grievance committee final decision was reached, lasted almost five (5) years. Since the Dean of the medical school was one of the administrators involved in the grievance, the university Provost had been informed regularly during the proceedings and the final report of the grievance committee was sent to her. However, it is not part of the grievance committee’s mandate to recommend steps to correct any damage the grievant had suffered. It is generally understood and accepted that once the grievant had proved that wrong has been done to her, it is up to the university administration to act to correct that wrong.
Thus, the grievant in the above case sent a letter to the university Provost in which she asked that the university will allot her at least a two-year budget to allow her lab staff and to be paid and supplies to be purchased (all her grants ran out) and also that the university will pay her attorney fee, which amounted to $25,000. Below is the Provost’s response, which was sent on August 7, 2009, almost 40 days after receiving the faculty member’s letter: