Former HSU admins find fault with allegations against professor – Times-Standard

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Former Cal Poly Humboldt administrators voiced concerns after a recent USA Today report detailing the process of how a former dean of the Arcata campus’ College of Professional Studies continued as a tenured professor despite sexual assault allegations.

The story published on Monday, shines a light on the use of retreat rights, a safety contract provision allowing administrators to return to the faculty due to the at-will nature of these leadership positions. As reported, these retreat rights are generally handled throughout the CSU system on a local, per-campus basis and are generally written without any caveats for misconduct such as sexual harassment.

In a response to a Times-Standard inquiry regarding retreat rights for administrators, campus spokesperson Grant Scott-Goforth said “Cal Poly Humboldt does provide retreat rights to some administrators. Not all administrative appointments contain retreat rights. This is a common arrangement in higher education and the California State University.”

The university revised its practices on retreat rights a few years ago.

“To the best of the university’s knowledge, since the 2017-18 school year, retreat rights to a tenured faculty position are withdrawn if the appointee is non-retained for a violation of university policy. The only appointments the university is aware of that did not contain this updated language were interim appointments, which were never intended to be permanent,” Scott-Goforth replied.

Lee, who declined to comment on the USA Today piece, was fired from his post as dean in 2016 after allegations of groping and kissing a woman who worked on campus were upheld. Lee denied these actions. Six months after his termination as dean, Lee returned as a tenured professor in the female-majority education department through the retreat rights policy.

However, people working with or under Lee during his time as dean of the College of Professional Studies told the Times-Standard this week they believe the article takes an unfair tone toward Lee.

Robert Snyder served as provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at the then-named Humboldt State University from 2007 through 2014. He hired Lee in 2010 as part of a campuswide effort to diversify faculty, develop online classes and find ways to increase student success during a time students from a minority background were arriving in greater numbers.

Snyder believes the article was not objective.

“(Author Kenny) Jacoby obtained a copy of the complaint, he also says that he’s asked for a FOIA request from the university, which would, I believe, contain John Lee’s response to that complaint, which I understand he contested. Now, Mr. Jacoby went ahead and published his article without ever getting the FOIA request. So you have the complaint, but he doesn’t have John Lee’s response … This is something that happened six or seven years ago and he couldn’t wait for the request? You’re kidding me,” Snyder said.

Jacoby reports Cal Poly Humboldt officials said the request was expected to finish redacting by “the end of May”.

“In fact, there was another female administrator in John’s college office, and you have two people at the administrative level below John in his office. One of them is the person that filed the sexual harassment complaint and Mr. Jacoby doesn’t even bother to interview the other female administrator in the office. So I saw the article is just very, very biased personally,” Snyder continued.

Denise Vanden Bos worked under Lee as a director of project development, where she was responsible for creating opportunities for off-campus and research assistantships as well as student internships.

“He was my direct supervisor. He did my performance evaluations and we had weekly meetings to keep things on track and so forth,” she said of her duties at the time.

She told the Times-Standard the allegations in the article are not factual.

“I was interviewed during the Title IX investigation and I was shocked at the allegations because nothing even remotely inappropriate has happened in any of my direct observations between the people involved,” Vanden Bos said. “It’s a hit piece. The article has nothing factual in it. What I think the writer did was interview some people but didn’t look at any of the evidence. I called him to speak to him and he never returned my call.”

“(Before) I got to HSU, I had worked in different positions at Planned Parenthood for 10 or more years, the last five as the CEO of our local affiliate. I am a total woman’s advocate. I’m about women’s rights, and I was trained in sexual harassment claims and procedures. I’ll tell you that the investigation that was done on the HSU campus had many flaws,” Vanden Bos added without specifying the perceived flaws.

Peter Pennekamp did volunteer work under previous university president Rollin Richmond and attended meetings with Vanden Bos, his wife. He told the Times-Standard many changes Lee brought to the College of Professional Studies in benefit of students caused anger among staff.

“People were so anxious to get rid of him because he was standing up for the students. There was so much bias they should never have done this review on campus. The campus was completely incapable of doing this fairly,” Pennekamp said. “That USA Today story put together totally unrelated stories to attack Dr. Lee and make it sound like there is a pattern of abuse… It’s just unbelievable.”

With the campus expanding its faculty and staff size as part of the long-awaited transition to the CSU system’s third polytechnic institution, the campus spokesperson reiterated the university provides retreat rights to some administrators and that not all administrative appointments contain retreat rights.

“We will continue this practice and ensure the above language referenced is included in applicable appointment letters,” the response reads. “Humboldt will also be imposing additional conditions on retreat rights consistent with an upcoming CSU policy.”

Mario Cortez can be reached at 707-441-0526.

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