U Not Gonna Like This

Nabbed from the Way Back Machine a story that appeared on the now defunct David Throop Men's Issues Page:

If you think that it cannot happen to you because you are one of the "good guys", think again.



Consider the case of James B. Maas, professor of psychology at Cornell University. Maas is the kind of professor others envy -- his introductory course on psychology is always filled to capacity, and the Cornell Daily Sun's annual poll of undergraduates rated the course the most popular on campus again and again. In 1993, Maas was awarded the Stephen H Weiss Presidential Fellowship, a prestigious teaching award.



Affectionate and outgoing, Maas has made it a practice (perhaps unwisely) to include his students, and particularly his teaching aides and research assistants, in his family life. On at least one occasion, he hired a student to serve as nanny for his children, and students were customarily present at family events such as birthday and holiday parties. Maas is universally acknowledged to be generous toward his students -- with his time, attention and money.



For the most part, Maas' efforts on behalf of his students were met with gratitude and loyalty. But a handful of the female students who had once been employed by Maas later came to see their experiences with him through an ideological lens. Twin sisters who had worked for Maas enjoyed a warm relationship with him. But they subsequently became teaching assistants to Andrea Parrot, a professor of human ecology and a gender feminist who believes that any woman who "feels pressured into sexual contact on any occasion is as much a victim (of rape) as the person who is attacked in the streets."



The twins rethought their friendly relationship with Maas. They remembered the affectionate hugs (always in front of third parties, often the professor's wife, but never mind), the gifts of watches and so on -- and concluded that what they had experienced as a warm friendship was actually sexual harassment.



The twins then recruited a third coed, a friend of theirs, who had served as a nanny to Maas and had, since graduation, been seeing a social worker who encouraged her to think of herself as a victim.



The three coeds then combed the list of former students and assistants to Maas, looking for allies. It was quite a list since Maas had employed upward of 500 students in various capacities (teaching assistants, film crew members for documentaries reasearch assistants) for 31 years. Almost all of Maas' former students responded to the twins with disbelief, and hundreds wrote to Maas directly to express their outrage at the accusations. But there was one student who claimed that Maas had once touched her breast seven years earlier (which Maas vehemently denies), and the lynching mob was off.



The bundled accusations of these four former students were presented to the college's Professional Ethics Committee in a procedure that bore all the marks of a star chamber. Neither Maas nor his adviser (a lawyer was not permitted) was allowed to be in the room while the women testified -- for fear of upsetting them. Maas had to listen to their testimony via earphones in a room two floors away. Witnesses who testified on Maas' behalf were bullied and mistreated.



One woman who said Maas' behavior had never been improper was instructed that she didn't understand secual harassment (she had been raped). A letter to Maas from one of the accusers expressing her deep gratitude for "everything you have done for me over the years" was ignored.



But even taking all of the accusations (except the breast touching) as true, the case against Maas just didn't add up to anything like sexual harassment. The bulk of the charges concern friendly hugs and kisses.



The committee acknowledged that Maas was not seeking sexual favors. But that didn't stop them -- and, later, the entire university -- from decreeing that Maas was guilty. Moreover, against its own policy, the Professional Ethics Committee leaked its verdict to the press, leading to an irrevocable loss of reputation to Maas.