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Sexual Harassment

Daily Bread for 8.9.21: Willing Enablers

Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will see scattered thunderstorms with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:56 AM and sunset 8:04 PM, for 14h 08m 20s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 0.9% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6:00 PM. The Whitewater School Board meets in closed…

At UW-Whitewater, Beverly Kopper’s Tenure Was about More than Beverly Kopper

Former UW-Whitewater chancellor Beverly Kopper was on leave – apparently for part of that time under federal or state medical leave act provisions – before her resignation from UW-Whitewater. I’ll not speculate about the circumstances under which she claimed leave under the law. There’s another matter that requires attention. There’s talk at UW-Whitewater these days…

For UW-Whitewater’s Administration, Talking Points Won’t Be Enough

Yesterday, I posted on The Marketing of Misinformation: UW-Whitewater’s Use of a Counterfeit ‘Campus Safety’ Study. Today, here is a look at some of the university administration’s talking points in response to long-standing acts of sexual harassment and assault on campus.  (They’re from the new university chancellor’s recorded interview with a local newspaper.) From the video…

Beyond the Third Investigation

Some weeks ago, I promised readers a copy of the third investigation report into sexual harassment on the UW-Whitewater campus. That report is linked at the bottom of this post. Read merely alone, the report describes gross intentional misconduct, gross negligence and moral indifference about harassment and assault, as well as separate matters of managerial…

Third Investigation: ‘Up to 10 students, faculty report being harassed by former UW-Whitewater chancellor’s husband’

Originally posted 4.19.19. One reads today, in a Good Friday records release from the UW System, that Up to 10 students, faculty report being harassed by former UW-Whitewater chancellor’s husband: An investigation into the husband of former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper found that at least seven and up to 10 students or staff…

Updated Post: Questions Concerning a Ban on the UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Husband After a Sexual Harassment Investigation

I’ve added a few additional questions to a post, Questions Concerning a Ban on the UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Husband After a Sexual Harassment Investigation, first published here on 9.17.18. These questions are surely not comprehensive, and they are process & policy-oriented, so they implicate mainly the institutional response to individual injuries.  As policy, however, the university or…

The Limits of an Institutional Deal

Yesterday, UW-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper announced that she was resigning her position as of 12.31.18.  Later in the day, the UW System publicly announced that Kopper would be on leave at her former salary for eight months, and then in the fall have the option of returning to UW-Whitewater’s Psychology Department as a professor.  See…

Kopper Resigns, Whitewater Remains

One reads that Beverly Kopper, UW-Whitewater chancellor, has resigned her position effective 12.31.18.  Her resignation was generally expected for at least the last few weeks, and was, more importantly, necessary.  This was a public matter involving a spouse appointed to a public position accused of sexual harassment by at least five women while the appointing chancellor kept…

0, 448, 476, 84

0 Number of published words from Chancellor Beverly Kopper in support of five complainants alleging sexual assault or harassment from her publicly appointed assistant-to-the-chancellor spouse. 448 Number of published words from Chancellor Beverly Kopper in reply to one remark from a single sportscaster during a single Packers preseason game. (It’s not that one shouldn’t reply…

A Defense That’s Worse Than Nothing

Retired UW-Whitewater professor Brian Kevin Beck contends that Kopper shouldn’t leave [the] Chancellor post. (Candidly, there’s a chance that his defense is so bad that it’s an intentional parody of a defense. It’s hard to believe anyone who served on a worthy faculty could reason so poorly.) Beck argues that (1) misconduct involving Kopper’s public…

The UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Lack of Individual Regard

After – and only after – the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke the story of repeated sexual harassment claims against Pete Hill – appointed to a public role as ‘associate of the chancellor’ (and chancellor Beverly Kopper’s husband) – did Kopper herself make a public statement of the matter. Kopper’s statement is notable for its utter lack…

‘Inappropriate’ as the Passport to Unaccountable

“Do you believe your father’s [sexual misconduct] accusers?” –@PeterAlexander “I think it’s a pretty inappropriate question to ask a daughter if she believes the accusers of her father when he’s affirmatively stated there’s no truth to it.” –@IvankaTrump pic.twitter.com/23AVPgcOdE — TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 26, 2018 Trying to figure out what part of this is inappropriate.…

‘5 (Misguided) Reasons People Doubt Sexual Misconduct Victims’

Shaila Dewan writes She Didn’t Fight Back: 5 (Misguided) Reasons People Doubt Sexual Misconduct Victims: She took decades to come forward. She can’t remember exactly what happened. She sent friendly text messages to the same man she says assaulted her. She didn’t fight back. There are all sorts of reasons women who report sexual misconduct,…

Three ‘Things That Make Organizations More Prone to Sexual Harassment’

Marianne Cooper writes of The 3 Things That Make Organizations More Prone to Sexual Harassment: “typical of the sort of organization that researchers have found to be particularly prone to sexual harassment and abuse: male dominated, super hierarchical, and forgiving when it comes to bad behavior.” Cooper’s full article is well worth reading, but her reduction here to…