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Woman in Binghamton Athletics Files Harassment Complaint With E.E.O.C.


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First posted on this Forum by MsGDG, but I thought it deserved its own thread:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/sports/n...agewanted=print

 

March 19, 2009

Woman in Binghamton Athletics Files Harassment Complaint

By PETE THAMEL

 

A woman who raises money for Binghamton University athletics has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging “egregious acts of sexual misconduct” by two senior athletic department officials.

 

Elizabeth Williams, a major gifts officer for Binghamton athletics, began processing the complaint with the E.E.O.C. on March 5 and formally filed it Tuesday. In it, she named Jason Siegel, a senior associate athletic director, and Chris Lewis, the assistant athletic director for development.

 

In her complaint and in a telephone interview Tuesday, Williams said Siegel physically and verbally harassed her after she started her job in the athletic department Jan. 5. She reported the situation to university officials a month ago, she said, but little progress has been made and she has since been marginalized in her role.

 

“I saw a couple of top administrators, an ombudsman, a union representative, and they said: ‘I’ve seen people go through this before. It’s athletics. It doesn’t end well,’ ” Williams said.

 

The E.E.O.C. has yet to review the complaint or determine the credibility of the allegations.

 

Siegel works closely with the Binghamton men’s basketball team and is in Greensboro, N.C., where it is preparing for a first-round N.C.A.A. tournament game against Duke. Reached by telephone Wednesday and told about the complaint, he hung up.

 

Citing university policy, Lewis responded Wednesday by saying, “I don’t have a comment, and quite honestly, she shouldn’t have a comment on that, either.”

 

Joel Thirer, Binghamton’s athletic director, said he had “no knowledge and no comment” regarding Williams’s accusations.

 

Binghamton, a No. 15 seed, plays No. 2 Duke on Thursday night in the university’s first N.C.A.A. tournament appearance. Controversy has accompanied the team’s success this season, with the recruiting philosophy under Coach Kevin Broadus and the university’s academic admission standards drawing criticism on campus and around the America East Conference.

 

Williams was hired in March 2008 as the university’s regional director of major gifts, and she switched to raising money for the athletic department in January. She said the harassment began her first day in the department, when she was told by Lewis that she needed to engage a donor at a Binghamton game because he liked “chesty, loudmouthed women.”

 

One week later, Williams said, she attended a dinner in New York with Siegel, Lewis and major donors from a fraternity. Soon after dinner began, she said, a donor began putting $100 bills on the table and asked her to tell him to stop when there were enough there for her to sleep with him.

 

According to Williams’s complaint, Siegel and Lewis encouraged and participated in harassment the rest of the night. She said that they speculated on her chest size and that Lewis suggested she strip for a donor who was planning a bachelor party.

 

At their hotel after dinner, according to the complaint, Siegel grabbed Williams’s breast in an elevator and told her he wanted to “make sure it was up to standard.” She said Siegel spoke with her the next morning in the lobby, saying: “We’re all O.K., right? Nothing happened last night.”

 

Williams said similar behavior continued at work, where she said Siegel consistently stood close enough to touch her body, stared at her chest and spoke to her using sexual innuendo like “using her assets.” When she made a work recommendation to Siegel in February, she said in her complaint, she was told she was “not hired to have opinions, but rather to look good and flirt with donors.”

 

Williams said her lawyer had cautioned her that publicizing the complaint would probably decrease her chances of winning settlement money because she could no longer use the threat of public attention as leverage.

 

“I just don’t want him to continue to do it,” Williams said of Siegel. “And this is the only way that will happen with the system that’s in place at Binghamton.”

 

She said she stepped forward to report the situation a month ago and had since been removed from her office, had the pass code for her voice mail changed and been relieved of nearly all of her responsibilities.

 

“You’re setting an example that’s very clearly stating, ‘If you’re a victim of something, you’re going to be persecuted and punished even more,’ ” Williams said.

 

She said she was told Tuesday in a meeting with Joseph Schultz, the university’s human resources director, that a similar case has dragged on unresolved for five or six years.

 

“We have neither received an E.E.O.C. complaint, nor have we been advised that one is in process regarding this matter,” Schultz said through a university spokeswoman Wednesday. “Whenever human resources receives complaints about inappropriate behavior, a full and thorough investigation is undertaken.”

 

Williams’s lawyer, James A. Gregory, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he and Williams met on Feb. 19 with Schultz and Valerie J. Hampton, the university’s director of affirmative action. Gregory said they interviewed Williams in detail at that meeting.

 

“We brought the complaint to them and told them what’s happened,” Gregory said. “As a result, she was removed from her duties, and the harassers are still doing their duties. We haven’t seen any results of the investigation to date.”

 

In Greensboro on Wednesday, a team spokesman said Siegel and Thirer did not attend the team’s news media session and open practice.

 

“We’ve put blinders on,” Broadus said at the news conference when asked about Williams’s complaint. “You know, horses run races with blinders on. And when you get in an airplane, you put earplugs in. We can’t control what people write about us, or write about our university.”

 

Viv Bernstein contributed reporting from Greensboro, N.C.

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whats up with Pete Thamel? It's like he has some personal vendetta against Binghamton.

 

He's been the NYT reporter following Binghamton athletics and, specifically, the basketball team. And this latest story is certainly related to Binghamton athletics. It's an article worthy of publication in light of the first article Thamel wrote.

 

My $.02.

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whats up with Pete Thamel? It's like he has some personal vendetta against Binghamton.

 

He's been the NYT reporter following Binghamton athletics and, specifically, the basketball team. And this latest story is certainly related to Binghamton athletics. It's an article worthy of publication in light of the first article Thamel wrote.

 

My $.02.

 

 

This negative story aside, there have been stories about Bingo's basketball program in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal... What's up with that? 2 runs to the NCAAs and I don't recall any UA stories in the NYT.

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whats up with Pete Thamel? It's like he has some personal vendetta against Binghamton.

 

He's been the NYT reporter following Binghamton athletics and, specifically, the basketball team. And this latest story is certainly related to Binghamton athletics. It's an article worthy of publication in light of the first article Thamel wrote.

 

My $.02.

 

 

This negative story aside, there have been stories about Bingo's basketball program in the NY Times and Wall Street Journal... What's up with that? 2 runs to the NCAAs and I don't recall any UA stories in the NYT.

 

If I'm not mistaken there was a 'why not us' story as well as a follow up to the game.

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