THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
VOL.101,NO.139
ADVERTISING:864-4358
THURSDAY,APRIL 23,1992
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
TWICE VICTIMIZED
KU's grievance system may add hurt to sexual harassment
Law student complaints name prof
By Jenny Martin and Gayle Osterberg
Kansan staff writers
Editor's note. The following account is a story told to Kansan reporters by a former law student, identified in this story as Kim, which is not her real name. The professor she cites in her account declined to be interviewed for this article.
in the summer of 1988, a female law student entered Green Hall for the first time.
As a first-year law student adjusting to a new home, Kim spent as much time learning the difference between Kentucky and Tennessee streets as she did between voir dire and chance of venue.
She was adapting to her new surroundings. She figured out the best direction to take from her apartment to Green Hall, the grocery store and the nearest fast food restaurant.
But no one gave her directions for avoiding sexual harassment.
As the summer session came to a close, Kim went to a birthday party for a fellow law student. To her surprise, classmates were not the only familiar faces at the midsummer gathering. Her criminal procedures professor, Eml Tonkovich, was making ides and drinking beer with his students.
Tonkovich, she later learned, was a regular at law students' parties. Students said he wanted to be treated as a drinking buddy instead of as a professor.
Kim joined Tonkovich and some students at the party in a group discussion. Eventually, she and the professor started a conversation. They talked about his newly acquired property and the animals he owned.
Tonkovich repeatedly brought up the importance of getting good grades in the law school and mentioned that Kim still had three years left. Then he asked her whether she wanted to go for a drive.
When Kim stood up to leave for home, Tonkovik offered to walk her out and followed her to her car.
"I was intoxicated and scared," Kim said. "I couldn't understand why he kept talking about me."
As he pointed out landmarks,he continued to talk about grades until they reached the west end of campus.
Reluctantly, she got into the passenger's seat of his car and allowed the professor to give her a tour
"This is Carruth O'Leary Hall. 'he said as he pulled into a deserted parking lot."
All she could think about were his classroom jokes that the anonymous grading system in the law school was not as anonymous as students thought.
He then unzipped his pants, turned to her and
hid his legs in front of the camera.
Kim complied with his request. She performed oral sex.
"I feel like a whore," she said. "I feel degraded
and ashamed."
K imspent the next three years trying to forget the events of that evening and carry on as a typical law student — even nodding to and greeting her former professor in the hallways. She feared humiliation and retaliation from within the legal community if she told her story.
Kim said she later learned she was not the only student who had experienced sexual harassment in some form at the law school. Other female law students told her that Tonkovich had sexually
Another woman told the Kansan that she took a class taught by Tonkovich during Summer 1989. He stopped her one day outside Green Hall and asked
"It made me really uncomfortable," she said.
"It's kind of strange to have your professor stop you and ask you that. I was one of 60 summer starters in the small, but I didn't know him outside of the classroom."
Last May, these women and one other approached Robert Jerry, dean of law, with their stories. The dean suggested that they seek help outside the law school at other University offices.
where they spoke with Tom Berger, then-associate
**Continued p. 7**
May 20,1991
One day at the three women contact Robert Jerry, dean of law, about sexual harassment in the
Late August Office of academic affairs collects written sexual-hassarment complaints from the women and others in the law school.
Sept. 6
Deadline for filing with action, which would then determine whether there was a violation of the faculty code.
Mid-Sept.
Following the cases
November 14
The women, plus one other woman who had also filed a complaint, go to the court believing all means of assistance at KU exhausted.
One of the women files complaint with U.S. Dept. of Education. She alleges that KU mishandled the欠款 payment complaints. The department will conclude its investigation May 1.
Beginning of Jan.
More complaints filed against Tonkovich.
Four women have been frustrated about how the University of Kansas has handled their complaints of sexual harassment in the law school. A chronology of events:
As of today
Jan.1992
Sept.
Dec.
April
Academic affairs notifies one of the women that a recommendation has been made regarding her complaint. The recommendation is appealed. The ACLU issues a news release publicizing the sexual-harassment charges
Oct.
October 18
By Jenny Martin and Gayle Osterberg Kansan staff writers
Jerry and Emil Tankovic, professor of law, agree to reallocate Tankovic's responsibilities from teaching to research projects.
End of fall semester
October 1
One woman's complaint, filed within 180 days, is resolved by affirmative action.
Complainants perceive process as vague, unfair
n Oct. 11, Anita Hill detailed her allegations of sexual harassment by Supreme Court
nominee Clarence Thomas to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Her testimony put sexual harassment at the forefront of the national consciousness.
In their attempts to seek change, they found themselves again and again struggling at every level in the hierarchy of administrators that govern the University's sexual harassment grievance procedures.
Four weeks earlier, on Sept. 16, four female law students sat down with an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union to prepare a news release that would put sexual harassment issues at the forefront of the University's consciousness.
"We wanted to arrive at a solution to make KU Law a more respected place," one complainant said. "We just wanted a change in conduct."
Source: Complaint filed with Department of Education, law school complainants; ACLU
May 1991
The women were fed up.
In the preceding four months they had sought help from three University offices in settling sexual harassment complaints within the School of Law. They were seeking a change in the atmosphere at the law school, which they thought was tolerant of sexual harassment.
Research by Jenny Martin, Kwan staff writer Compiled by Jee Meesey, Dake Kwan
"We went to the American Civil Liberties Union when we realized that the University was our adversary," one woman said.
They believed they were fighting a losing battle against a system that, ironically, was designed to help students with complaints.
"Have you spoken to the professor about this?"
"Why didn't you come to us before now?"
October 1
Six months have passed since the October 18 press release brought the law students' allegations to the public's attention.
Early August Complaints move from affirmative action to academic affairs.
University confidentiality rules prevent KU administrators from commenting about specific cases. In the information vacuum, rumors and negative publicity have cast a grim shadow on how the University handles sexual harassment complaints.
Administrators say they have been following University guidelines step by step. But these women and others find the procedures vague, intimidating and unfair. They say the procedures leave little protection for the victims. And, in the end, what began as an attempt to improve the atmosphere in the law school may have made others reluctant to come forward.
The October press release announced that attorney Ron Nelson and the ACLU would investigate the handling of the worm's complaints.
Nelson, a Kansas City, Kan., lawyer and a cooperating attorney with the
June 29
Complaints meet
officers of office of affirmative
action, after Jerry
suggests they take
action KU administration
Sexual harassment complaints
Sexual-harassment complaints
All other complaints
Sexual-harassment complaints at KU have involved men, harassing women, women harassing men and same-sex harassment. Each year's complaints are recorded from Nov. 1 to Oct. 31.
Of the 31 sexual harassment complaints, four reached the formal stage and were resolved
87 (74%)
1988-89
One complainant said, "At the beginning of every stage I thought they must have had procedures in place to handle this. I assumed that some path was being followed, but every step of the way it was obvious that there wasn't."
Source: Office of affirmative action
Jeff Meesey. Daily Kansas
ACLU, said the University of Kansas needed to improve its handling of sexual harassment complaints by communicating better throughout the process.
June 29
In fact, the University has had a detailed set of sexual harassment grievance procedures since 1982. And some KU officials think they are better than what many universities have to offer.
But three of the law students — whose complaints were against the same professor — did not go through this part of the University's procedural system because they did not come forward within 180 days of the alleged acts, which is required by the sexual
Continued, p.6
INSIDE
If you've been harassed
A graphic illustrates the path a harassment complaint takes in KU's grievance system after being filed.
Page 6
Page 6
harassment policies and procedures solicits comment.
Paneloffers changes After a semester of consideration, a committee reviewing KU's sexual
Court rules on damages Students now can seek monetary damages in addition to injunctive relief in sexual harassment suit.
Page 6
Anti-homosexual group protests at KU student's funeral
Susan Mee expected the demonstrators to show up at the funeral of her brother, a victim of an AIDS-related illness.
"We got a telephone call a few minutes before the funeral telling us that we should take another route to the cemetery," Ms. Gillespie wrote, "tumble intrusion. It was pretty shocking."
Mee said eight protesters from the Fred Phelps ministry, a staunch anti-
By Andy Taylor
Kansan staff writer
homosexual, anti- AIDS group in Topeka, stood outside the First Congregational Church in Topeka yesterday after the Scott, 35, was taking place inside.
Scott, a KU sophomore, died Saturday at Trinity Lutheran Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. Mee said her brother's illness had worsened since spring break when he was not able to attend classes.
Mee said the protesters stood across the street, recited Bible verses and held signs that read "God Hags Faps."
She also said her brother requested that protesters be invited to attend his funeral.
"We invited them to come in, but the protesters did not communicate," she said. "They just started pointing to Bible verses."
Phelps, a Baptist minister for 45 years and former candidate for governor, said in a telephone interview last night that he and seven other followers of his church, the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, did protest at the funeral and that they frequently
protested the funerals of other people who die of AIDS complications.
Using the word "fag" throughout his conversation, Phelps said it was his divine duty as a minister to tell the world about the evils of the homosexual lifestyle.
"I do have human sympathy for people," he said. "But dying time is truth
Mee said she talked to officials from Gov. Joan Finney's office yesterday to see whether the state prohibits demonstrations outside funeral homes or
churches. The Kansas Legislature has approved a bill that would outlaw such demonstrations, and Mee said she hoped to talk to Fineny today.
"I have been told that she will sign the bill on Friday," Mee said.
Bill Resnick, a friend of Scott's, said he was sickened by the protest.
"It's beyond sick," he said. "It is sort of absurd."
Resnick said family and friends were planning a rally, "Food for Thought," from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday
at Topeka's Gage Park, 10th Street and Gage Blvd. Therally is sponsored by Sunday in the Park Without Fred.
Ken Scott
Scott and his illness were the subjects of a University Daily Kansan profile in December titled "P.S. I still think life is magical." His name was not used to protect his identity.