By Asia Fields
Western administrators and the dean of Huxley College of the Environment have been unresponsive to questions from campus publications on what the college is doing to address sexual harassment.
Students have expressed frustration with Huxley and the university since The Western Front published an article in November showing environmental studies professor Paul Stangl was allowed to keep teaching despite a university finding that he sexually harassed students.
Huxley Dean Steve Hollenhorst has directed questions about the topic to Paul Cocke, director of communications and marketing. Cocke has responded to all questions by saying he cannot comment on personnel matters due to privacy or has no further comment, except to say Stangl isn’t currently overseeing senior projects. He also has not answered questions that weren’t about Stangl’s case specifically.
Emails obtained through a public records request also show the administrator in charge of determining faculty discipline said he didn’t consider public discussion about the sanctions he imposed on Stangl productive.
“Here again, I think that if they already know what the discipline is, to get into a discussion or debate about [The Western Front’s] opinion of that discipline and its connection to the investigation findings will not be terribly productive,” Brent Carbajal, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said.
The email came after the Front sought response from Stangl for its story about how the student who reported him was frustrated with how Western handled her case. Stangl forwarded the email to Hollenhorst, who then forwarded it to Carbajal and Cocke.
Stangl is not allowed to teach courses in summer 2018 or travel field courses until summer 2020.
Stirling Scott, the recent graduate who reported Stangl, disagreed with Carbajal’s statement and said administrators need to explain their decisions to students.
“It’s been made pretty clear among the student body for the most part that people are disappointed with the disciplinary actions that were taken,” she said. “So I think it’s important that the administration take the time to understand where students are coming from so they can improve.”
In December, Huxley students organized a forum to express their concern with the Stangl case. Huxley students also said they were frustrated with a lack of action from Huxley in March at a bystander event put on by the environmental studies department, the Front reported.
Carbajal did not respond to an email and when called, his office directed the AS Review to contact Cocke, who said they had no further comment when asked if Carbajal stood by this statement.
Scott said she thinks the university has been making “broad placating statements,” such as President Sabah Randhawa’s email to campus in February saying Western has a zero-tolerance policy.
Despite these statements, she said there has been no tangible action, and she’s disappointed by how little has changed after all the work she did to have the university investigate Stangl.
“From what I know, it seems like the communication from the university has been pretty disappointing. I think they really owe it to students to be clear about where they stand on this issue going forward,” she said.
The AS Review emailed Cocke in April asking what action Huxley and university leadership has or will take to address student concerns and why Hollenhorst and Cocke would not respond to questions about addressing student concerns not related to any specific case.
In response, Cocke said they did not have further comment.
In response to the Front’s questions in March, Hollenhorst said he had to refer the questions to Cocke due to university policy on personnel concerns. He did not respond to questions not related to Stangl.
Stangl also responded to the Front saying the administration advised him to direct questions to Cocke.
In response to the Front’s emails, Carbajal recommended Cocke and Vice President for University Relations and Marketing Donna Gibbs advise Hollenhorst if he wanted to make any further statements.
Hollenhorst did not reach out to the Front with a statement. He also did not respond to a follow up email sent the day of publication inviting him to comment on non-personnel matters by responding to the general frustration of Huxley students.
Carbajal instructed Cocke to stay consistent with his response to what the university has said before. However, he said if Cocke responded differently than in the past he suggested saying discipline is determined through collaborative discussion and in response to investigative reports.
Maeve Pickus, a graduate student on Huxley’s Environmental Studies Equity and Community Committee, said while she understands there are rules about commenting on personnel matters, students are also frustrated and feel like nothing has been done.
While talking about specifics might be off the table, efforts to address and prevent sexual harassment should be shared as publicly as possible, Pickus said.
At a March bystander intervention event put on by the environmental studies committee, Pickus said she realized student frustration was directed at Huxley and students want to see institutional change.
“Institutions are slow to change, but I would encourage everyone who is able to push them,” Pickus said. “That is how change happens.”
The committee, which began in 2016, invited students to attend a meeting on March 5 to discuss sexual harassment and assault prevention, including alcohol and drug policy, with an initial focus on field learning experiences, according to the invitation sent to students.
Around 20-25 students attended the meeting and said they felt there was a lack of communication, Pickus said. Pickus said administrators were not at the meeting, but that Hollenhorst, who she teaches with, has communicated support directly to the committee.
However, she said she’s not sure if undergraduates feel the dean or college leaders are accessible or if everyone knows how to have their concerns heard.
The committee will not try to change university policy, but is looking to create best practices and expectations for faculty who travel with students, Pickus said. The committee has plans to send environmental studies students an email with an update on what it is doing soon, she said.
Going forward, the committee will look at how to move this issue up to administrators, she said.
Despite how frustrating the process has been for Scott, she said she hopes students will not be discouraged from reporting when something happens, but that the systems need to be fixed.
Scott said she can’t imagine what it would be like if her experience had been more emotionally traumatizing. She wants to see Western address the criticism the Equal Opportunity Office has received in recent years.
“This has been an issue that has been pretty ignored for how aware students are and how these problems have been persisting,” she said.
And she hopes Western will do something.
“I hope they take all this attention that this story has been getting and turn it into something tangible so students can feel safer,” she said.
Editor’s note: The Western Front reporter referred to in this story is Asia Fields, the author of this article. She has continued reporting on this subject for the AS Review.