Women in history dept. claim bias

One female faculty member resigned and four males filed a legal grievance in response to a recent report claiming a hostile work environment exists toward women in UT's history department.

The report, compiled by the Office of Institutional Diversity and leaked to the press on Thursday, said interviews with females in the department revealed that "these female faculty members feel that they are addressed in a condescending manner, are patronized and simply not respected as scholars."

While not listing names, the report cited how one female said she felt the department was "toxic" and made her feel "physically sick" and how another female said the department "is an unbearable environment" where she was not welcomed. The report also said the women feel mistreated in meetings.

Larry Wilcox, professor of history, said the claims made in the report are ridiculous.

"I deny unequivocally any of the innuendoes made in [the] report," he said, adding that the report has damaged his professional reputation.

"How do I defend myself against outrageous charges of sexism?" he said.

In a grievance filed by Wilcox and other male members of the department, he lists several past actions taken by the history department that rebuke the claims of the report.

Wilcox and the other signers of the grievance to be filed today with the UT chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said of the last 19 tenure-track faculty members hired in the department, 10 were women.

Following today's resignation, however, only one will remain.

Rob Sheehan, interim provost and executive vice president, wouldn't release the name of the faculty member who resigned, saying the university would go more public with the situation later this week.

Diane Britton and Ruth Herndon, the only two full-time female faculty members remaining in the history department at press time, declined to comment or could not be reached.

The females who are cited in the report said the behavior has been going on for so long because "the core of the department has been there for thirty years." They also said change isn't possible.

"As long as the faculty members who … have contributed to the formation of this negative environment remain … the atmosphere will not change," the report said.

Wilcox, the senior member of the department, said he's been on the faculty for 39 years, and he's never seen anything like this happen before.

"This is by far the worst situation I've ever seen," he said.

The report said several times that the vote of no confidence given to the department's former chairman in December of 2005 only inflamed the already hostile environment.

According to a source within the history department who wished to remain anonymous for fear of worsening the situation, the previous chairman, Timothy Messer-Kruse, was ousted for attempting to change the unfriendly behavior.

Wilcox disagreed.

"Two-thirds of the department agreed that if we didn't vote him out, he was going to do more damage [to the department]," he said.

Messer-Kruse, who declined to comment, was voted out by a vote of 8 to 4 - the majority of the department being males.

Following the filing of the report with UT President Lloyd Jacobs, the history department's leadership was disintegrated (Interim Chairman Al Cave resigned from his post and took a medical leave) and put under the guidance of the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Interim Dean of the college Sue Ott Rowlands said in a memo to the faculty that she is developing a plan to address the issues brought up by the report.

Ott Rowlands could not be reached for comment, but Sheehan said the move will have no impact on students.

"All it means is that for a period of time, the department chair responsibilities will be taken on by the dean," he said.

The anonymous nature of the claims made in the report and the action taken because of them has caused some concern among the male members of the department.

"What has happened is that unsubstantiated charges have been investigated in secret and the department has been tried and convicted without even being given a fair trial," Wilcox said. "The way it's been handled is very, very badly."

Others outside of the history department agreed with Wilcox.

In a letter to the Arts and Sciences Council's executive committee, David Davis, a political science professor, called the report and the action taken "a witch hunt presented in melodramatic fashion that assaults the principles of faculty governance."

Sheehan said the report only uses anonymous sources so the faculty could feel safe speaking out about the types of things allegedly occurring in the history department.

"This is a style that is used in this type of reporting," he said, adding that this isn't the end of the investigation.

"I would like to see a bit of a cooling-off period, [but] we certainly will be looking into it further," Sheehan said. "We want to try to understand these differences of opinion."

Sheehan said further action against members of the department will likely not be taken. "We will have several resignations because of retirement," he said. "[But] all members of the department should feel welcome."