In two separate stories, well-known professors are involved in allegations of harassment by George Mason and Virginia law schools. Conservative law professor Ronald Rotunda left George Mason University with his wife Kyndra Rotunda (who worked in the law school’s clinic) after she accused another professor of sexual harassment. They transferred to Chapman University. In the meantime, on the liberal end of the spectrum, Professor William Eskridge, Jr. has testified that he left the University of Virginia in 1985 due to its discrimination against him as a gay man. Eskridge was not accusing the current faculty of such misconduct.
Ronald Rotunda (left) was viewed as something of a catch for George Mason, a law school with a highly conservative reputation and faculty. The school hired Kyndra Rotunda (right) to serve as director of a legal assistance clinic for military service personnel, but she alleged that she was harassed by clinic director Joseph Zengerle. The allegations in her EEOC lawsuit include (1) she was paid less than Zengerle; (2) he called himself her “knight and protector”; (3) he bought her a scarf and suggested how she should wear it; (4) invited her to drinks alone at his house and became upset when she did not show up; and (5) Zengerle “repeatedly came uncomfortably close.”
Both Dean Dan Polsby (left) and Zengerle (right) deny the allegations.
Ronald Rotunda reportedly raised his wife’s treatment after she resigned with the faculty grievance committee, including what he viewed as an insufficient response from the administration. The Committee found failings but also found no evidence of gender discrimination as opposed to a “severe conflict” between the two faculty members.
After that determination, Rotunda wrote in his resignation letter to Polsby that ‘[f]or the past year, George Mason has revealed itself as an institution more concerned with hiding its dirty laundry than cleaning it.”
George Mason has had some tough times with faculty controversies. A few years ago, another well-known conservative scholar (and former assistant secretary of commerce to President George W. Bush) William Lash III shot and killed himself and his autistic son after an argument with his wife, here.
In a different story, Eskridge’s testimony in support of the Employment and Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 last week raised some eyebrows when it included an accusation that he left Virginia for Georgetown in 1985 due to a hostile workplace for gays. This included criticism of his scholarship (which is rightfully considered some of the best in the academy) and a chairperson of the tenure and promotion committee who “stormed into my office and screamed at me for 10 minutes or so . . . With clenched fists and a beet-red face, the chair of the committee threw a tantrum that included a string of accusations, such as ’stabbing me in the back’ and behaving in the treacherous manner that he and his colleagues ought to have expected of a ‘faggot.’” He says that the unidentified professor “spat on me and called me dirty names” and ultimately reduced Eskridge to tears.
It was an amazing account from one of the country’s most prolific and respected academics.
For the full story, click here.
Oh come on honey, wear that scarf and a trench coat. Come on over and soon we’ll gloat over the boat. I see no credible evidence offered and if Rotunda wants something done by the EEOC well he should expect them to do what has been the previous administration response to such allegations. Not much happening in that department either.
The wingnuts often are the first to claim rights for which someone fought and which they didn’t support. Moreover, no lawsuit is frivolous if their the plantiff.