3 women complain about law dean's behavior. He still has a job.

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS – The dean of Northern Kentucky University's law school resigned in December after three women reported he made them bend over, reach high on bookcases repeatedly and dance in front of him, among other acts that they considered demeaning.

Nonetheless, Jeffrey Standen will be back this fall at Chase College of Law as NKU's highest-paid professor, making nearly $222,000 a year.

That's because after an investigation into written complaints filed by the three women in November, NKU officials decided there wasn't enough evidence that he had engaged in sexual misconduct.

The university did find "sufficient evidence to support a finding of an unhealthy culture of fear, intimidation and bullying." He was allowed to resign for "personal reasons," take a seven-month leave of absence at his current annual salary of $260,100 and then return in the fall, NKU records show.

The complaints – by an employee and two work-study students in the dean's office – were obtained by The Enquirer through an open records request.

“I caught him looking down my dress on a number of occasions,” one of the women wrote. She also said Standen would routinely adjust his crotch in front of her.

Another wrote: “These experiences could be considered mild sexual harassment but I consider them mostly a very hostile working environment.”

Standen, 57, told The Enquirer some of the allegations were "defamatory and false" but declined to say which ones. According to the investigative report, he denied some of the accusations, including that he called a female student "honey."

He said in an email to The Enquirer that he was a tough boss but not hostile.

"I am demanding of my co-workers, much as I am of myself," Standen wrote. "I was informed by university officials that it was the perception of hostility, and not hostility itself, that led to complaints. At no time did I ever intentionally act with anger toward my co-workers."

The investigation only found “an unhealthy culture. There was no finding that I was the cause of it,” Standen wrote.

NKU spokeswoman Anna Wright said the documents "speak for themselves.”

The Standen situation has come to light as #MeToo allegations and investigations continue to surface across the country and across the Ohio River, including at the University of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati Police Department.

More: Why and how Enquirer is writing about sexual harassment

‘… And he watched the whole time’

After a four-week internal investigation, NKU officials issued a report Dec. 7 finding that "Dean Standen has violated Northern Kentucky University's Values and Ethical Responsibilities Policy."

Among "undisputed facts" listed in the report: "Perception created by Dean that he does not respect employees and treats them with belittling and demeaning actions or statements, especially women."

The report says Standen acknowledged that he asked for a dance lesson and made student workers "arrange books on bookshelves, part of the job."

The full-time employee reported that Standen made her stand on a table while wearing a dress to reach an air vent, and then hold on to his belt loop while he did the same.

One of the student workers reported Standen would drop things and make her pick them up and made her rearrange items on the bottom and top shelves of a bookcase repeatedly "and he watched me the whole time."

That same woman said Standen made repeated requests for a hug on her last day and for her to try on a T-shirt in front of him. She also said he previously tried several times to set her up with his son on a date.

Standen “made me uncomfortable to the point that all my friends could tell when I had finished a shift there because of my mood,” she wrote.

“Dean Standen also made comments about my physical appearance that went past the norm," the complaint stated. "If I didn’t wear makeup or dress up he would ask if I was sick then proceed to be measurably more condescending and cold than usual."

All three reported that he routinely commented on their mode of dress.

"I often found that times that us girls wore dresses, skirts, or leggings seemed to be when he asked to do things in his office like arrange his bookshelves or stand on chairs to fix his vent," the third woman, a former student, wrote in her complaint.

The two former students' initial written complaints are the only details the report includes from those women. That's because the investigators – Ann James, NKU's senior associate dean of students, and Rachel Green, director of employee relations – did not interview them.

Two additional witnesses told NKU investigators that they either experienced or saw Standen make female students pick up objects that he dropped such as papers or pencils.

The three women who made the complaints declined interview requests by The Enquirer through an intermediary who said they were afraid of possible retribution.

A resignation, and then a new job

NKU's finding of an "unhealthy culture" came in a memo from NKU Provost Sue Ott Rowlands to Standen dated the same day as the report. Standen resigned as dean of the law school the next day. About a week later, Ott Rowlands accepted the resignation, effective June 1. She offered Standen a full-time teaching job this fall with a 15 percent pay cut, and Standen accepted.

But Wright declined to discuss why Standen is being allowed to remain as an NKU employee or didn't face more discipline, saying it was a "personnel matter." After initial publication of this story, she said it's school policy to allow deans to remain on faculty when they resign their leadership position since they are fully tenured.

Neither the nature of the complaints nor the investigation was ever made public by NKU officials.

Standen declined to say why he resigned.

“My decision to resign had nothing to do with the investigation or the complaints," he told The Enquirer. “My reasons are personal and I shall leave them as such.”

Standen came to NKU in 2013 after a long stint as a law school professor at Willamette University in Oregon. Willamette, a private school, declined to release Standen’s personnel records there.

Chase's results improved under Standen. Graduates passed the Kentucky bar exam at the highest rate among Kentucky law schools for the second straight year in 2017.

NKU board 'very comfortable' with conclusion

Rich Boehne, chairman of NKU’s Board of Regents, said the board stands by the final outcome.

“This started with some rumors, and then the university folks proactively reached out to those potentially involved and moved very quickly to look into this," Boehne said. “The board is very comfortable with the investigation and the conclusion reached and how they handled it from there as they followed the school’s policy and this was not just an arbitrary decision.”

NKU declined to make senior officials such as interim President Gerard St. Amand, incoming President Ashish Vaidya or Provost Ott Rowlands available for interviews.

Wright said the investigation into the complaints against Standen was “thorough.” The two work-study students were not interviewed by NKU because they “did not provide contact information for a follow up and are no longer on our campus.”

She said school officials were not concerned with Standen’s return as a teacher because there have not been any reports concerning his behavior in that capacity.

Chase's two associate deans are serving as co-interim deans until a full-time replacement is found.

Ott Rowlands informed the rest of the law school about the resignation at a meeting in December but did not give details of the investigation. According to meeting minutes, Ott Rowlands stated that “had there been anything illegal or unethical his employment would have been terminated.”

Retired Ohio First District Court of Appeals Judge Sylvia Hendon, a member of Chase law school's advisory board and an alumna, said she and the rest of that board weren't told about the circumstances surrounding Standen's resignation, either.

"I am surprised and disappointed because my dealings with the Dean were nothing less than 100 percent professional," Hendon wrote in an email to The Enquirer.

The Standen situation is not NKU's first high-profile case involving accusations of misconduct toward women.

Last year, the school settled with a former student known as Jane Doe for nearly $1 million after she sued the school. The woman alleged NKU officials ignored her claims that a male student who had sexually assaulted her was still allowed to menace her on campus and that the school did nothing about it.

One of the NKU officials who was involved with that case was Ann James, an investigator on the Standen case.

More: NKU basketball team faced sexual behavior concerns in 2015

And The Enquirer reported in 2016 about an adjunct philosophy professor who had been allowed to keep teaching after two separate sexual harassment complaints against him by students. The professor, Dennis Miller, was not rehired for the following semester.