That complaint was one of four filed in 2013 and 2014 alleging UD violated the federal Title IX law, which broadly prohibits sex discrimination, including sexual harassment, at educational institutions receiving federal funding.
Two complaints were dismissed without investigation and one was closed after the OCR found UD acted properly. The fourth was partially dismissed, with the remainder of it resulting in a voluntary resolution agreement with the Department of Education.
The four Title IX complaints were the only such complaints filed against UD in the past decade, the newspaper’s investigation found. According to a statement released by the private university’s media relations office, four complaints are not an unusual amount “for a university of our size, especially considering that two of them were dismissed by the Office for Civil Rights without ever informing the University of their existence.”
“Allegations are just that — allegations — and cannot be regarded as statements of fact,” the statement said. “The filing of a complaint does not mean the things alleged in the complaint are actually true.”
The July 2013 complaint included an allegation that UD did not properly investigate a 2012 complaint alleging gender-based discrimination and harassment against women employees by Tony Saliba, then dean of the School of Engineering.
UD’s own investigation and a second investigation by independent counsel hired by UD cleared Saliba of wrongdoing, according to the university statement. OCR dismissed that portion of the complaint without investigation, because it was not filed within 180 days of UD completing its investigation.
In an email to the newspaper on Dec. 17, Saliba said, “Regardless of whether the complaints were filed in a timely or untimely fashion with the U.S. Department of Education, the facts remain that two separate investigations, one conducted internally by the University and one conducted by an external independent counsel, reached the identical conclusion that the complaints of discrimination and harassment were without merit and the matters closed.”
The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights did open an investigation into the same complaint’s allegation that UD “failed to adopt and publish grievance procedures providing for the prompt and equitable resolution of student and employee complaints” of Title IX violations, according to a July 2014 letter to UD signed by Meena Morey Chandra, director of the OCR’s Cleveland office.
Chandra said the OCR made preliminary findings of problems with UD’s policies and the university agreed to voluntarily resolve them. The feds accepted UD’s plan and closed the case in July.
UD agreed to modify its policies for handling complaints, provide new training to university employees, publicize its policies and to survey employees and students about how effective UD is in providing for “a campus free of sex discrimination, including sexual harassment,” according to a voluntary resolution signed by University President Daniel J. Curran on June 18.
“OCR is currently monitoring the university’s implementation of the resolution agreement to ensure that it is fully implemented,” said Denise Horn, assistant press secretary for the U.S. Department of Education.
UD officials said the survey of employees and students is occurring this month and all timetables agreed to in the resolution have been met.
The university’s statement characterized the changes to policy as “minor revisions to the complaint process to help make it clearer.”
‘UD needed to fix this’
The newspaper waited months for the Title IX records that were requested in June from the Department of Education under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
A department spokesman said Title IX complaint tallies for other universities were not immediately available, but he did say that since Oct. 1, 2008, 235 Title IX complaints have been filed with the OCR against 91 post-secondary institutions in Ohio.
Anyone who believes an educational institution has discriminated against someone in violation of Title IX can file a complaint with the federal government, even if the person who files is not the victim but is filing on behalf of others.
Philosophy professor Peggy DesAutels, who filed two of the UD complaints, including the one that resulted in the school’s voluntary resolution agreement, said she was pleased UD agreed to modify its policies to resolve her federal complaint.
“UD needed to fix this,” DesAutels said.
DesAutels was not an alleged direct victim in either complaint but is one of a group of activist faculty members who have fought what they say is a negative climate for women at the university. She argues that they all are affected if Title IX rules are not followed.
“We tried to do this internally for two years,” DesAutels said. “It was not to make trouble. It was to achieve positive change, absolutely.”
That effort included a 2013 Call For Faculty Action co-authored by DesAutels and four other faculty members. The document, updated in April, accused top administrators of not sharing governance with faculty, creating a negative environment for women “characterized by harassment, intimidation and fear of retaliation” and having inadequate policies for dealing with complaints. The document also accused Tony Saliba and his brother, then-Provost Joseph Saliba, of hostile treatment of women employees.
In May, 107 tenured faculty cast ballots for a non-binding vote of no-confidence against Joseph Saliba. Of UD’s 313 tenured faculty, 160 participated in the online vote organized by the authors of the call for action.
Joseph Saliba stepped down as provost in June and Tony Saliba left the dean position in January. Both are on sabbatical and are expected to return to teaching at UD. They were among the highest-paid employees at the university, according to 2012 federal tax forms filed by UD. Joseph Saliba received $311,503 in total annual compensation in 2012 and Tony Saliba was paid $259,010 in total compensation.
In a Dec. 10 email, Joseph Saliba echoed the comments made by his brother, saying UD and independent counsel thoroughly investigated the complaints.
“Both investigations resulted in conclusions that the charges lacked merit, and for that reason were not accepted by the University,” wrote Saliba, adding that the no confidence vote was not sanctioned by UD and was organized by the same people who made the “discredited” charges against him.
The university in its statement defended the Saliba brothers. UD’s investigations “rejected claims that either of them harbored some innate discriminatory bias against women or that they created hostile environments,” the statement said. “The University is saddened that misperceptions continue to arise that detract from the tireless and selfless contributions they have made to the University for more than 30 years.”
The university did address some of the faculty concerns, responding with an anonymous, online academic climate survey of employees, convened meetings to discuss survey results and develop action plans, and is working through the Academic Senate to strengthen the relationship with faculty, the UD statement said. It also said UD is “committed to the advancement and leadership development of women within the organization.”
The university also has taken a variety of Title IX-related actions recommended by its 2010 Sexual Misconduct Education, Prevention and Response Task Force, including adding a Title IX coordinator in 2012, and has fielded calls from other universities wanting to use UD’s Title IX policies and procedures as models, said David Sipusic, UD’s Title IX/Section 504 coordinator and equity compliance officer.
The university declined to say how many Title IX complaints had been investigated internally.
Increased focus
The federal Title IX complaints against UD were filed as sexual harassment and assaults nationally are coming under increased focus.
Where Title IX was once mostly associated with discrimination in college and school athletic programs, a 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter sent by the Department of Education to federally funded schools and colleges made clear their obligations under Title IX to prevent and respond to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault, said Lisa Maatz, vice president of government relations for the American Association of University Women. A 2013 change in federal law also added more detailed reporting requirements for acts of sexual violence on campus.
Maatz said universities had become complacent about rules, including the requirement to have a Title IX coordinator. The OCR had endured years of tightening budgets and also wasn’t able to give schools the training and information they needed to comply with the law, she said.
UD’s statement noted that the “Dear Colleague” letter created increased publicity about Title IX and may have helped prompt more complaints, including those against UD. The statement also noted that none of the Title IX complaints involved sexual assault and the university is not one of the 91 being investigated by the federal government for how they handle sexual violence allegations.
The July 2013 Title IX complaint that resulted in the resolution agreement was one of four filed against UD with the U.S. Department of Education’s OCR. In those other cases:
- The OCR closed a November 2013 case after its investigation found UD had properly handled a former student's sexual harassment allegation against a professor. The university found the allegation to be unsubstantiated, according to the federal documents.
- A December 2013 complaint was dismissed without investigation because it duplicated a sex discrimination and retaliation complaint filed by a former employee with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "The EEOC dismissed the complaint as it found no violation of federal law," UD's statement said. EEOC spokesman Joseph Olivares said the office is prohibited from commenting on any cases it may have handled.
- The OCR also dismissed DesAutels' March 2014 sex discrimination and harassment complaint without investigation after the three alleged victims declined to consent to the use of their names. That complaint alleged UD did not follow Title IX grievance procedures in investigating two complaints of sexual harassment, one made by two professors and another by a graduate student, against a professor.
The university statement said it would not discuss personnel matters but said incidents alleged in both dismissed Title IX complaints had been investigated internally by UD.
The March 2014 Title IX complaint alleges that UD received a complaint from the grad student in the fall of 2013 and failed to properly investigate it. The UD statement, however, said “no such complaint” was made to the university by a graduate student alleging sexual harassment by the professor.
‘I have some work to do’
On Dec. 9, UD President Curran announced that he is stepping down in June 2016, a year earlier than his contract expires.
At a press conference that day, he said the concerns raised by some faculty members did not play a role in his decision.
“I think it was a matter of really looking and saying ‘let’s talk about this,’ ” he said.
“Again, things are going very well, so for me that didn’t play a role. All it did was say, ‘I have some work to do.’ ”
DesAutels and Andrea Seielstad, a law professor who also co-authored the call for action, both said conditions have improved at UD.
“They did spend a lot of time creating concrete policies and updating them and making sure those pieces were in place,” Seielstad said.
She said UD needs to build on those “incremental” changes to stop discrimination against women and allow more opportunities for them to advance.
“I think diversity is fundamentally critical to any organization,” Seielstad said. “It contributes to a better educational climate and much better, more robust, more thoughtful and accurate decision-making.”
Maatz said the federal focus on sexual harassment and assaults sparked real reform at universities.
“The best disinfectant is always sunlight,” Maatz said. “Now that (OCR) is posting publicly on their website those schools that are under Title IX investigation, there’s a lot more action on the part of those schools because nobody wants to be on that wall of shame.”
CLOSER LOOK
The Dayton Daily News investigation of Title IX complaints against the University of Dayton included a months-long wait for the federal government to provide redacted copies of the complaints under the Freedom of Information Act. The newspaper also obtained unredacted or confidential documents about the allegations and spoke to sources both inside and outside the university in reporting the story.
The University of Dayton signed a Resolution Agreement to voluntarily resolve a Title IX sex discrimination complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. UD also agreed to increase training and assess the effectiveness of its anti-discrimination policies.
The university agreed to revise policies and procedures that would at a minimum:
- Clarify the dual role of the Title IX coordinator/equity compliance officer.
- Clarify that when sexual harassment is found to have occurred the Title IX coordinator will "ensure and document" steps taken "to prevent recurrence of the harassment and remedy the discriminatory effects on the complainant and others."
- If pre-complaint or informal resolution processes are used notice will be given to the complainant that they are voluntary and the complainant can end it at any time and proceed to a formal grievance.
- Clarification when a party has the right to legal counsel.
- Clarification on how to proceed with a hearing when a complainant cannot be in the same room with the respondent.
Source: University of Dayton Resolution Agreement signed by UD President Daniel J. Curran 6/18/14
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