4/26/2011: From Mat Wolf in the ODE:
An official complaint alleging sexual harassment and unlawful employment practices within the University’s Department of Public Safety was filed with the state Bureau of Labor and Industries last summer.
In the complaint, Jennifer Parker, a former DPS employee whose employment was terminated on May 6, 2010, said she lost her position because she complained about being sexually harassed by DPS Sgt. Scott Cameron. Furthermore, the complaint alleges that DPS Lt. Casey Boyd did not take the allegations seriously and said that it was better to handle the allegations of sexual harassment in-house.
Specific allegations in the complaint state that Parker was repeatedly sexually harassed while at DPS, had repeatedly reported to her superiors about the harassment, and had her job terminated because she complained about this behavior to her superiors. In one specific allegation, Parker’s complaint said Cameron aggressively grabbed her by the arm, and that if she were not female, he would not have treated her in this manner. …
“better to handle the allegations of sexual harassment in-house.” Better for whom?
DPS Director Doug Tripp was able to keep a lid on this while he went to the students, faculty, and to the legislature in Salem to lobby for more money, authority, and guns. And a sweet PERS deal. We now know what his credibility is worth. Same for Liz Denecke, whose responses to public records requests on this may have been legalistically correct – but were less than trust-inspiring.
What else is DPS hiding from us? Maybe nothing, maybe a lot – but we know for sure it will take a hell of a lot to get the administration to be straight with us about it. Good luck to the people trying to construct an oversight policy for them. And nice work, Mr. Wolf.
DPS is not the only place in the university where S/H allegations are swept under the rug.
The whole grievance system is set up so the University gets a head start on a defense strategy of any grievance submitted.
Take a look…if you get a parking ticket and want to state your case…a panel of “citizens” reviews the case and makes a decision.
If you have a grievance the Executive Administration gets a full accounting of witnesses,evidence, statements and well….EVERYTHING..to review and make a decision. Most grievances are of course found baseless. Then after a period of time…for some bogus reason the person who grieved is fired, demoted, or harassed until they quit or… and that my friends is the rest of the story.
Talk about fox guarding the hen house! Anyone into filing a grievance now???