Eugene weekly., August 11, 2011, Page 6, Image 6

ALLEGATIONS
RILE UP UO
PHILOSOPHERS
Allegations of sexual harassment by an
unnamed male faculty member of the UO
Department of Philosophy by a retired
faculty member have led to an investigation
by the UO Office of Affirmative Action
and Equal Opportunity (AAEO) and a
lively discussion on philosophy blogs.
Major points of the online debate are if and
how the unproven allegations reflect on the
reputation of a department known as a
center for feminist thought and an
exceptional place for women to study.
An Aug. 3 memo to department faculty
and students by Russ Tomlin, senior VP for
academic affairs, says the allegations were
unfounded, in part because “no grievance or
complaint was filed by any alleged victim.”
The memo, requested by EW, states that
there was “insufficient evidence” to
conclude that the UO policy on conflict of
interest or sexual harassment was violated.
AAEO staff interviewed 25 current or
former graduate students, eight undergrads
and one faculty member, along with anyone
else they were referred to who might know
something about the alleged incidents.
The allegations were made public
recently on Leiter Reports, a national
philosophy blog by Brian Leiter. Leiter, in
a July post, wrote that a UO grad student
told him “there is a faculty member
suspected of being a serial sexual harasser,
and it was graduate students who had to
raise a stink about it, due to departmental
and administrative lethargy on the matter,”
and that “a feminist philosopher on the
faculty urged quiet about this incident lest
it cost the department an award for being
‘women-friendly.’”
The “feminist philosopher” mentioned
by Leiter is likely associate professor
Bonnie Mann. When asked to comment,
Mann said, “Leiter’s comments are grossly
misleading and represent an aggressively
stupid reading of my original statement.”
A statement this week signed by seven
members of the faculty, including depart-
ment head Ted Toadvine, calls the blog
statements “false and misleading,” and says
the allegations were addressed in “a timely
way,” and there was no attempt to suppress
information other than “respecting confi-
dentiality” during the investigation.
On a different blog called Feminist
Philosophers, Mann is quoted saying,
“The entire discussion, as far as I can tell,
seems to be based on a letter sent to Leiter
… This letter seems to have been taken at
face value, however, with no hesitation
whatsoever in assuming its factual worth.”
Mann said the department had a history
of sexual harassment up until about 15
years ago, but the issues were “transformed
by the work of a number of our current
faculty members, including Mark Johnson,
and former faculty members, including
Nancy Tuana, into a program that values
feminism and has been a wonderful place
for women to study. That reputation was
hard earned.”
Mann said she’s worried that “the last
thing that seems to be at issue in any of
these discussions is the actual woman
who may have been harmed, and the
efforts to publicly defame the department
without so much as a phone call to the
Affirmative Action office to ask about the
actual process or outcome of the
investigation. … Some of us are being
publicly hung here.”
UO senior spokesman Phil Weiler said
the policy of the UO is to not release
names of those making accusations in
order to protect their privacy, and likewise
protect the person accused since the
investigation was inconclusive.
What’s next? Tomlin’s memo says “In
response to these circumstances, Academic
Affairs has put together a working group
to review and update our efforts to educate
faculty on the management of sexual and
romantic engagements with students and
others on campus.” And the memo from
the faculty says, “We take the recent
events in our department as an invitation to
work energetically and proactively toward
improving the climate for women in our
community even further.” — Ted Taylor
Former Hoedads president Rust wants
to pass on a philosophy: “Occasionally,
when planting a unit I would hear someone
on the crew yell, ‘Today the unit; tomorrow
the world.’ There is the idea that if we can
get it right locally, we can get it right
globally.” He adds, “For the Hoedads,
living locally was a straight tree root
placed in the bottom of a deep hole, filled
in with moist soil.”
The Hoedads will gather at the WOW
Hall starting at 8 pm Aug. 13 (doors open
at 7:30) with free admission for Hoedads.
— Kendall Fields
BOARD
HOEDADS BACK LABOR
RULES ON OLD
FOR BUMPIN’
R-G COMPLAINT
GOOD TIME
Get ready to do The Bump or The
Reverse-Take-It-Back. It’s time to practice
those tree-planting dance moves since the
Hoedads are coming back to town.
Members of the Hoedads Reforestation
Cooperative will return to Eugene the
weekend of Aug. 12 for their 40-year
reunion celebration.
The three-day celebration will be filled
with private parties and a public dance
party at WOW Hall.
Jerry Rust, one of the organization’s two
founders and former Lane County commis-
sioner, says the celebration is sure to be filled
with “laid-back earnestness.” Of course,
what would you expect from the original
tree-planting cooperative that preached ide-
ologies such as feminism, environmentalism
and participatory democracy?
Rust says the more Hoedads he “bumps”
into, the more successful the night.
“I’m looking forward to bumping into
lots of old Hoedads,” Rust says, “and
trying hard to remember gliding through
the woods by day and huddling around a
campfire by night eating peanut butter and
sprouts sandwiches.”
More than a decade ago, The Register-
Guard and Eugene Newspaper Guild were
embroiled in protracted labor disputes and
Guard Publishing even imported the
notorious self-described union-buster
Michael Zinser to head negotiations. One
of the many issues of the time was a
disciplinary action against R-G copy editor
Suzi Prozanski for improper use of a
company computer to send emails in 2000
regarding union activities. Prozanski, who
is married to State Sen. Floyd Prozanski,
left the R-G in 2002.
The disciplinary action was appealed to
the National Labor Relations Board, got
national attention in law circles, and the
case ended up in the U.S. Court of Appeals,
where it was remanded to the NLRB. A
decision dated July 26 finds in favor of
Prozanski and the court is requiring the
R-G to “rescind the disciplinary actions
taken against Prozanski for sending those
emails and to post an appropriate notice.”
The order gives the R-G until Aug. 10
to “remove from its files any reference to
the unlawful warning, and within three
days thereafter notify Prozanski in writing
that this has been done.”
slant
• Some of us remember Mark Hatfield from earlier
times in Oregon when politics seemed less polarized
and being a politician was more about serving the
public interest and less about promoting a narrow
ideology and belonging to a gang. Hatfield was a
Republican who earned the trust and the support of
Democrats because he was clear-headed, far-
thinking and independent of party lines. As a
senator and governor he was an effective and
creative advocate for our long-term economic
vitality. Once upon a time Oregon voters marked
their ballots for the most qualified candidates,
regardless of party affiliation. Now we vote straight
party lines out of fear that extreme party platforms
will lead us to ruin. Does Hatfield’s death mark the
end of an era, or does his legacy of bipartisan sanity
remind us of what we can aspire to in his memory?
• Is print dead? Not yet. We got great news last
week that EW now has a record 96,457 regular print
readers in Lane County, up from 84,570 last year,
and an even more dramatic jump from 77,180 back
in 2007. These numbers are from the independent
Media Audit, a company that does extensive,
in-depth, random polling every spring to document
what local media local people use, what they buy,
6 AUGUST 11, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
etc. We’re happy to see our readership take a big
jump, but we see The Register-Guard’s readership
numbers have dropped significantly in every
category. Puzzling statistics. Last year 25.3 percent
of Lane County residents read the R-G weekday
sports section. This year it’s only 19 percent. Where
did the sports fans go? Online? Both papers have a
growing web presence, but for some reason, people
still like us in print.
• Fascinating process going on in the UO
Department of Philosophy regarding
unsubstantiated allegations of sexual harassment
reported by a former faculty member (see News
Briefs this week). The department has evolved over
the years to become a national center for feminist
philosophy and has a reputation for being a great
place for women to study, so the allegations were
particularly disturbing for both faculty and
students. But unlike earlier times when sexual
harassment was common and ignored, a thorough
investigation was conducted which determined the
allegations were unsubstantiated. Unfortunately, a
blogger and University of Chicago law professor,
Brian Leiter, posted rumors as facts in this case,
mistaking confidentiality for cover-up. Has the
department’s reputation been besmirched? Maybe
not. The investigation shows how seriously the
department and the university take such
accusations.
• Who’s to blame for the economic crisis?
Unfettered capitalism brings exciting boom and bust
with its gross inequities, while socialism brings
boring stability with its overriding sense of social
justice. We favor the latter, but we don’t seem to be
heading in that direction. And while everyone is
watching the emotion-driven stock market (and
most of us are pissed at obstructionist conservative
wingnuts), climate change continues to threaten not
only our economy but also our national security.
Everything is tied together: Short-term, greedy,
materialistic thinking hurts our environment, our
health and our national bank account. Maybe we
need a new national slogan. We heard a couple of
good suggestions from EW reader Melanie Lee: “A
Healthy Global Ecology Equals a Healthy Global
Economy,” and “Power to the People and to the
Natural Environment.” Any others?
SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations and rumor-chasing notes
compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted
Taylor at 484-0519, editor@eugeneweekly.com
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