Union accuses college president of ‘shaming’

The leader of Central Connecticut State University’s faculty union is strongly criticizing President Zulma Toro for releasing a decade’s worth of investigations into sexual misconduct allegations against faculty and staff.

“This was more than just complying with a Freedom of Information Act request,” read the statement, which was hand delivered to Toro on Tuesday by Louise B. Williams, a history professor who serves as president of CCSU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “We believe it was an attempt to threaten and intimidate faculty members.”

“We do not think this type of public shaming will help ‘cultivate a healthy, safe, and inclusive campus environment’ or improve the ‘culture of diminished trust.’ In fact, it will do the exact opposite.”

The union’s statement also pointed out that the reports contain the unredacted names of faculty witnesses. “This will send a chilling message to potential witnesses in the future,” the union said.

Earlier this month, Toro released 10 investigations in which there were findings of sexual misconduct against faculty or staff members. In all but one case, the faculty members no longer work for the university, having either resigned, retired or been fired. Toro released the documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from CCSU’s student newspaper, The Recorder.

The materials also included detailed complaints against two communications department professors — Serafin Mendez-Mendez and Jeffrey Teitler — in which no violations of university policy were found. Those reports were specifically sought by the Recorder.

Toro said she felt it was important to release the reports, including those that had “no findings,” to comply with the FOIA request and promote transparency at the university.

She said she wants CCSU to “be a model in terms of how we handle this type of behavior in such a way that people feel empowered to come forward to share their complaints and concerns, and also for people to understand that we are going to take action when their behavior calls for action.”

But the union said that rather than making people feel empowered to come forward to share their complaints, “The President’s release of reports violated the privacy of witnesses, and it most likely will make faculty, and even students, more reluctant to reveal anything about their experiences. In short, it will make it much harder to get to the truth in the future.”

Toro defended her decision and shot back at the union, saying its statement “empowers the offenders and that culture of bullying and the culture of intimidation and harassment.”

“It has the effect of protecting a small group at the expense of the good faculty, students and staff we have at Central who are doing a lot of good work and are very productive, very honest and have high integrity,” Toro said.

Williams said in an interview that despite her strongly worded rebuke, she applauds the changes Toro has made on campus to improve the handling of sexual harassment cases, as well as her efforts to be more transparent.

“I do want to say I think President Toro is a really wonderful president. In over 20 years, she’s really the best president we’ve had,” Williams said. “I think she made a mistake.”

Williams also said Toro “has really faced the problems of the past” and has “made this a safe campus.”

The union had numerous complaints about the way in which the information was released, including an objection to the way Toro “lumped the cases” in the investigative reports together in one email, as if suggesting “that they were all the same — examples of ‘rotten apples’ — or bad faculty.”

“The reality is far more complex,” the union said. “Discipline cases are complicated and varied, not all of them put students at the same risk, and they all require different administrative responses.”