With Thursday's release of the Steingass report-an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Paul Barrows' employment status-came a slew of new allegations of sexual harassment, decision-making errors and further knowledge of the debates among top UW-Madison officials as the Barrows controversy unfolded.
Barrows' alleged sexual solicitation of several university colleagues, including phone calls in which he requested sexual favors, if found to be accurate, should not go unpenalized.
We stand firmly resolved that Barrows should be immediately terminated from his position at UW-Madison, even though he has not been formally charged. Regardless, under similar circumstances, an employee in the private sector would already have been fired.
Nevertheless, Chancellor Wiley's hands are tied. He cannot issue Barrows' outright termination because of the restrictive red tape of administration employment policies. Although Steingass noted the widespread knowledge within Bascom Hall of the alleged harassment, there has been no formal complaint filed against Barrows. Therefore it is nearly impossible for Barrows to be let go.
The next best option for the university has been to place Barrows on leave and hope he is offered a position with another institution. Wiley gave him seven months to find a job at another university. During this time, Wiley approved months of sick leave without requiring medical documentation. \Sick leave,"" Steingass noted, ""became an expedient way to continue a situation that went on far too long."" Although Wiley's actions were not in accordance with university policy, his efforts to distance Barrows from this campus were in the best interest of the university. As the report concludes, ""good intentions caused bad results.""
When this plan failed in June, Barrows was demoted to a lesser position with approximately a third the salary. He is currently employed as senior administrative program specialist and will be required to undergo sexual harassment training by the end of they year, as directed by UW System President Kevin Reilly. We consider this ""punishment"" a mere slap on the wrist.
Equally troubling are the current university policies working against our administrators' best interests, potentially forcing them to leave an institution required to retainpersonnel, regardless of conduct. According to Steingass, Hong left the university because of Barrows' behavior. Clearly, UW-Madison's ""lack of forthrightness"" resulted in the loss of a competent administrator and this type of conduct will severely diminish the university's ability to attract and maintain a world-class group of educators.
UW-Madison students will feel the effects of this controversy as well. With our school frequently under heavy criticism for Halloween riots, birth control distribution and a top party school rank, media scrutiny of this kind will only lower the prestige of this university in the eyes of prospective students, employers and peer institutions around the country. Furthermore, such incidents will do little to reassure potential donors their dollars are being well spent.
Moreover, such blatant flaws in the policies and governance of the university will give credence to those in the state legislature who advocate funding cuts for the UW System. If the university's critics have their way, students will end up shouldering the burden of a significantly higher tuition. The continued employment of Barrows will only hurt UW-Madison's standing when it comes time to appropriate taxpayer dollars.
The policies that enable Barrows to stay must be altered if UW-Madison intends to retain its excellent employees, fire the less skilled ones, receive adequate support from the legislature and attract the brightest students and faculty.
