THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 5, 1995 TAG: 9504050458
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE HADLEY CAMPUS, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines
A part-time instructor in the American studies department has sued the College of William and Mary, accusing the school of mishandling a sexual harassment complaint she filed against a tenured professor.
The suit by Karen Veselits, a doctoral student at W&M, says the college's response to her complaints perpetuated a ``hostile environment'' and caused her ``emotional, psychological and economic damages.''
Veselits and her attorney, Eileen Wagner of Richmond, declined to identify the professor.
President Timothy J. Sullivan declined comment on the suit. Spokesman Ray Betzner said: ``As with all lawsuits, our position is that we will answer in court.''
This isn't the first time the college has been accused of not responding quickly to a sexual complaint. In 1992, student Katie Koestner won national publicity after she criticized the school for mishandling her complaint of a sexual assault by another student.
Michael Powell, director of affirmative action at the college, said the school is rewriting its sexual harassment policy, which was developed in 1991, but not because of Veselits' case. ``Even a good policy can be made better with the ultimate goal of ensuring a campus community free from harassment and discrimination,'' he said.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Newport News March 16. Veselits is seeking $2 million.
In the suit, she says the professor made several sexual advances in 1993. After she rebuked him, he gave her a ``punitive . . . grade,'' she alleged.
After Veselits filed a formal complaint with the college's Sexual Harassment Committee in 1993, the suit says, the college ``took no meaningful action, . . . willfully and wantonly creating a situation wherein the perpetrator maintained unsupervised access to female students vulnerable to sexual harassment, including the plaintiff.''
In August, more than a year after the complaint was filed, the committee found that there was ``prima facie evidence'' of harassment, the suit says. In February, the suit says, a dean told her that the college still had not decided what action to take against the professor.
In the suit, Veselits said that as a result of ``emotional distress,'' her grades dropped. As a result, she lost eligibility for financial grants and was passed over for a state fellowship.
She said in an interview: ``If the college does not have a sexual harassment policy that works, then women cannot be educated at this campus. It is really that simple.''
Campus correspondent Lee Banville contributed to this story.
KEYWORDS: SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAWSUIT by CNB