Public Disservice: Discrimination, harassment settlements add up for ASU

Meaghan Paulhamus came to Arizona expecting to pursue her academic dream working for a top criminology scholar.

Paulhamus, now in non-profit administration, was pursuing her doctoral degree in criminology at Northeastern University in Boston when her mentor, Robert Kane, told her he was leaving for Arizona State University.

Eager to keep working with him, Paulhamus transferred to ASU where Kane would supervise and mentor her.

But soon after she arrived in August 2008, she says Kane began making comments about her chest. Three months later, Kane allegedly walked out of a hotel bathroom at an out-of-town conference with his pants down.

Paulhamus sued the Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees state universities. The board settled the case, with the state paying her a six-figure settlement while denying liability or wrongdoing.

A high cost

Paulhamus’ case wasn’t an anomaly for Arizona or the university.

The state paid $854,000 to settle nine lawsuits with ASU employees, mostly for racial and sexual discrimination from 2009 to 2014. The total payout was the second highest among state entities, and the number of cases was more than any other state agency.

Paulhamus’ case is one of 57 claims by state workers — most alleging sexual, racial and age discrimination and harassment — investigated by The Arizona Republic. More than half the employees who filed claims said they were penalized by retaliation, while the accused went virtually unpunished — in many cases, they continued to garner pay raises and promotions.

Phoenix civil-rights attorney Stephen Montoya said a $100,000 payout is a large settlement in an employment law case, and ASU had four that settled for that amount or more in the five-year span studied. If legal costs are included, that number rises to six.

By comparison, eight settlements at the University of Arizona totaled $114,000, while three at Northern Arizona University cost $54,500. The UA’s largest settlement was $25,000, while NAU’s was $50,000. With 10,544 full-time equivalent employees, ASU actually has less than UA, which has 11,234. NAU has 3,199 full time equivalent employees. None of the figures include graduate student workers.

Montoya said ASU’s record indicates a culture that allows bad behavior to go unpunished, with ASU administrators hoping it all “will go away.”

ASU spokesman Mark Johnson would not speak to the particulars of any lawsuit, but suggested in a statement that it would be wrong to infer that the university has a problem with discrimination or harassment.

“It is our hope that your story will reflect that in our legal system — nationally, not just in Arizona — claims are routinely settled for reasons other than whether the case has any merit,” Johnson said. “They often are resolved on the basis of cost; that fighting a claim would be more expensive than reaching a settlement.”

Student harassed

Neither Kane nor Paulhamus would discuss the case. The following account is from court records and ASU disciplinary records.

Paulhamus claimed the harassment began with Kane’s comments about how well her clothing showed off her chest. He told Paulhamus he liked hearing rumors that they were sleeping together and he felt an amount of “ownership” of her.

Throughout the late summer and fall of 2008, Kane told her he was “imagining” her in a swimsuit. In the fall, when Paulhamus e-mailed him saying she was concerned about inappropriate comments being made by fellow doctoral students, Kane e-mailed back: “I’m trying really hard (and failing) not to think about you in different sexual positions.”

He sent her text messages and late-night e-mails, asking her what graduate students she would date. He said if he were a grad student, he would be very attracted to her, according to court records.

In November 2008, when both traveled to a conference in St. Louis, Paulhamus purposely stayed at a different hotel. Kane repeatedly called her, sent her texts, asked to get drinks and insisted they prepare for a presentation in his hotel room.

When Paulhamus got there, Kane went to change in the bathroom. He left the door open and then emerged with his pants down. He finished dressing in front of her, several times asking her opinion of the clothing he had selected to wear.

At the presentation, he rubbed his hand on her leg underneath the table. Later that night, Kane insisted that he buy her a drink and that she come to his hotel room. He sent her texts until 12:30 or 1 a.m., suggesting they meet at another hotel so that no one else could see them. When she declined, he said it was too bad because he wanted to kiss her goodnight.

Paulhamus later met Kane at a coffee shop to tell him his behavior was inappropriate and that it had to stop. He excused it, saying he was drunk. And after that meeting, she said Kane retaliated against her, becoming much more critical and condescending toward her work.

Paulhamus went to the university’s human-resources office and was directed to meet with Scott Decker, then-director of ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Decker, also named in the lawsuit, suggested Paulhamus change her course of study to a “more traditional” area for women. He also made comments suggesting he thought she and Kane had a consensual sexual relationship.

Decker assigned her to a female professor who later released her as a teaching assistant. Unable to find a faculty mentor, and with Decker refusing to assign one to her, Paulhamus took medical leave from ASU and never returned.

In 2011, she sued the Board of Regents, Kane and Decker, accusing them of sexual harassment and retaliation. In August 2011, she settled for $100,000. ASU spent another $31,000 to fight the case.

Shortly after settling, ASU gave Kane a letter of admonishment.The letter said that “while some of the student’s allegations were unfounded,” Kane’s conduct violated university policies on nondiscrimination, anti-harassment, non-retaliation, sexual harassment and the university’s code of ethics. The letter said he showed a lack of professional judgment and called his conduct unacceptable. For the next year, he was was not allowed to make trips funded by the school, teach additional courses, or be assigned a student mentor or assistant. Kane left shortly thereafter.

Kane now leads the Criminology and Justice Studies Program at Drexel University in Philadelphia. ASU hired him back as a senior consultant from January 2012 to August 2014, paying him $9,000 a year.

Not the only case

Decker was named in a second lawsuit during the same period.

Tasha Kunzi, a doctoral student, became romantically involved with professor Travis Pratt in 2009, according to court records. After Kunzi broke off the relationship in 2010, her lawsuit alleged, Pratt retaliated against her and threatened to ruin her career unless they got back together.

Court documents alleged other professors, including then-department chairman Decker, refused to do meaningful work with Kunzi. Decker assigned her to clerical work. Prior to that, she had been assigned research projects. Kunzi left in 2011. Pratt called her new employer “to reveal the details of Kunzi’s departure from ASU,” her lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also alleged Pratt and Decker discriminated against Kunzi’s new husband by unfairly grading his doctoral examination in 2012.

Kunzi settled for $44,000 in 2014. ASU spent roughly $104,000 in legal fees and associated costs. Pratt could not be reached for comment and did not respond to a letter hand-delivered to his home.

Decker’s personnel record shows he never faced discipline at ASU. In 2015, he became the director of ASU’s new Center for Public Criminology.

Decker said he could not comment on the cases because they involve legal matters, but noted he was dropped from the Kunzi lawsuit before it was settled.

Pratt in 2012 was given a letter of admonishment, which reduced his salary by 10 percent, discontinued a $10,000 stipend and removed his title of “faculty exemplar.”

His admonishment letter said Pratt assured the school’s dean there would be no repeat of his conduct. But at the time, Pratt already was involved in a relationship with another student, according to ASU disciplinary records.

He was fired after that relationship was discovered in 2013. His conduct was partly responsible for the ASU faculty approving a more restrictive policy on faculty-student dating.

Montoya, Kunzi’s lawyer, said ASU previously had a “laughable and ridiculous policy of permitting so-called amorous relationships. ... It’s almost always the student that is damaged.”

He said filing a complaint is often academically destructive and emotionally embarrassing, and can spur retribution.

“The cost of complaining is so profound,” Montoya said. “Oftentimes, it turns the entire department against you.”