What happens in the courthouse...

Unless explicitly noted otherwise, this blog represents my own opinions, not those of any organization (like the Kittitas County Democratic Party) that I might be involved with.

Feel free to join the conversation: welcome aboard!

Friday, November 30, 2012

Things to Remember About Manweller and his Defenders

To the Editor,

Once Representative-elect Matt Manweller assumes office (after the election is certified on December 6, not when he’s sworn in1), it will be important to respect the office2 and try to help him do the best possible job for his district.3

But even after he takes office, it will be important to be wary of the fact that Manweller embodies the negative aspects of his party that were soundly rejected by the country as a whole in the last election: arrogance, dishonesty, extreme partisanship, gross disrespect of women, mindless dogmatism, cronyism.4,5

It will also be important to remember that the local Republican Establishment has brought us a man who, in addition to the above, is credibly accused of actions at which the newspaper won’t even let me hint (which is why everyone should read the Manweller Report).6,7 There are decent, traditional Republicans who are as outraged about this as anyone else.

Meanwhile, Dr. Manweller’s (and CWU's, come to think of it) thoroughly unconvincing defense is based on bluster and technicalities. And for someone who claims to be innocent, he has certainly fought hard to keep the Manweller Report secret.

One striking thing about all this is the number of people who are willing to publicly defend Manweller. Would these same defenders really be willing to send their daughters to be Manweller’s students or his legislative pages or staffers?

“Innocent until proven guilty" is a legal idea. Manweller apparently hasn’t yet broken any laws, he’s just committed one of the worst ethical crimes possible for an educator. It's a matter of character, not law.

What Manweller did is plain to see for anyone who reads the report. For a retired professional educator like Jimmie Applegate to defend him is particularly disappointing.

For an annotated version of this letter, see whathappensinthecourthouse.blogspot.com .


1The Daily Record article about the swearing-in is here.
2Oh, dear. Try Googling "respecting the office" without the quotation marks, or just click here. If I had done this before I submitted the letter, I might have used a different phrase.
3I am dead serious about this. Representative Manweller will be 1/3 of our representation in Olympia. I will continue to criticize him and the Kittitas County Republican Party (which he until recently chaired) and call attention to his behavior as a CWU professor, but I will not do anything to undermine his effectiveness in Olympia. I hope everyone will join me in this.
4While the national Republican party rethinks everything, the local Republican Party has doubled down on Newt Gingrich-style politics. 
5For one example of thoughtful conservative soul-searching, see this piece at the American Conservative.
6Given the makeup of the 13th Legislative District, it is doubtful voters will remove Dr. Manweller. Only his party can do it. Will they? Time will tell.
7See also my earlier posts on this scandal, including "The Manweller Report." To read the Manweller Report itself, click here. The body of the report is only 18 pages long, starting on page 7 of the linked document.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

A Manweller Morning After

Note: the letter published in the Daily Record is slightly different from the one I originally submitted. The newspaper requested that I remove the portions shown in bold below. 0
The days after the election dawn chill for local Republicans. The only positive election outcome for them is the election of Matt Manweller, about which they must pretend to be pleased. Meanwhile, consequences of mismanagement by county commissioners are still mostly in the future, complicating 2014 election prospects for Obie O’Brien.1,2

In his day job, Professor Manweller is embroiled in a sex-for-grades scandal. Now we can focus on what is important: CWU’s past, present and future handling of this scandal.3,4

Manweller has been credibly accused of trading grades for sexual favors from students, of threatening students’ careers in an effort to keep secrets, and of stalking at least one student after graduation.5 According to the Manweller Report, his behavior was well known among students and CWU administrators and staff.6

Readers may find the details hard to believe, which is why everyone should read the Manweller Report for themselves.

One would think that it would be a mortal sin to trade grades for sexual favors. Manweller has failed his academic field and his colleagues at CWU and beyond. He has failed his department and Central Washington University. Most of all, of course, he has failed his students, and he has failed past and future graduates of CWU generally. His failure of his political supporters and of his party and new constituents is the least of it.

CWU has failed, too. The magnitude of CWU’s failure is virtually incalculable. Female victims learned not to look to institutions for help. Any students who might have played along with Manweller's alleged scheme learned that academic excellence is optional. Political science degrees from CWU are cheapened.

One would think that it would be a mortal sin to trade grades for sexual favors, but at campuses across the country, it isn’t.7

Here's the challenge, which we see in the most recent news reports: CWU isn't any more interested than Professor Manweller is in addressing these problems. CWU is in damage control mode, even as parents and students are working on their college applications for the 2013-14 school year.8

Professor Manweller has made a political career of claiming that he's a persecuted conservative in supposedly liberal academia. If nothing else, this case indicates the exact opposite: CWU avoided acting earlier, and avoids acting now, because of his political activities, not in spite of them.

For an annotated version of this letter, and a link to the Manweller Report, see whathappensinthecourthouse.blogspot.com .

Steve Verhey
Ellensburg


0I pointed out that all information in the paragraph had already been published, but they were unmoved.
1Interestingly, Manweller's support is lowest in Kittitas County, where his margin was about 60:40. In Grant County, it was 72:28, and in Lincoln County it was 77:23.
2A few quick examples of mismanagement: forcing the Upper County well moratorium instead of working with DOE for a job-saving compromise, continuing to drag out compliance with the Growth Management Act, skimming money from the hotel/motel tax to pay for the ill-fated work on the Armory, allowing multimillion dollar home construction in a fire-prone area without a Code-compliant exit road, use of road tax funds to balance the General Fund.
3Pre-election complaints about supposed political motivation were themselves politically motivated. The original student reports were not politically motivated, and nothing changes the reality and gravity of them.
4As one student I talked to observed, the reason the students didn't pursue formal complaints is that "they didn't feel CWU had their backs."
5 In the Manweller Report, the investigator uses the word "credible" to refer to all witnesses. The word is noticeably absent in describing Dr. Manweller's participation.
6While these details are technically allegations, a reasonable reader of the Manweller Report -- as opposed to Manweller or CWU spin -- will find it quite convincing. The body of the report is only 17 pages (double-spaced), and everyone should read it for themselves.
7There have been numerous news items and longer reports about this problem. Here's a sampling of articles about unsatisfactory college responses to sexual harassment: Naomi Wolf's "Sex and Silence at Yale," about faculty-on-student behavior and reporting; an article about student-on-student sexual harassment at Amherst. It is worth noting that Manweller's actions are far more serious than the sex scandal currently being played out in the national news, because of the asymmetric power relationship between faculty and students, and the trading of anything but academic performance for grades.
8Here's an excellent example of CWU spin: compare this article, in the Yakima Herald-Republic, to the last paragraph of the text of the Manweller Report.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

CWU Sexual Harassment Policies and Reporting


A recent anonymous commenter shared her experience of unwanted sexual attention from Professor Manweller:
Several years ago Manweller made unwanted sexual advances towards me. At the time I wasn't aware of his "history" of preying on young women. Had I known I would have been more likely to report the incident and would have avoided ever interacting with him. Instead, I had felt embarrassed and upset and didn't tell anyone. I had let it go until I heard about this report. I don't think he believes there is anything wrong with his behavior. He prioritizes his desires over any kind of ethical code. I read the report and would agree with the woman's statement that he is intelligent, manipulative, and sexually aggressive. I don't want to provide any more details and still do not want to come forward or make any kind of formal complaint or accusation. Part of me wants to come forward to strengthen the case against Manweller, but at this point I haven't been able to convince myself to do it. I do wish the university had done its job 6 years ago, it would have likely prevented this incident from occurring, either because Manweller would have been disciplined or because I would have been aware of his behavior and would have avoided contact with him.1
There is no way to know how many stories like this might be out there, both among current and former CWU students and among members of the larger Ellensburg community and beyond, and it's not clear whether this commenter is/was a CWU student. But it's worth looking at CWU's sexual harassment policy, and whether there have been any changes as a result of recent events.

A search on the phrase "sexual harassment" at CWU's web page turns up a number of hits, most of which are frankly not going to be useful to one of Professor Manweller's victims. 

Here's an example: the CWU Status of Women Commission's web page on sexual harassment (shown above, click on the image to go there) features four links to "Resources." Seems promising, right? But the first link leads CWU policy verbiage that even I don't have patience to read.

And the other three links are broken.

The CWU Diversity Center's page on sexual harassment is more useful. It features quotes from students describing sexual harassment, and a link titled "report an incident." The quotes even include one about improper faculty behavior, but you have to scroll down to see it. And the report-an-incident link goes to a page that requires the user to log in. It seems to me that it would be nice to offer a way for people like the anonymous commenter to make an initial inquiry, maybe as a step toward talking to someone who can help.

Considering the very real problem of sexual harassment that the Manweller Report describes, one would expect CWU to redouble -- and redouble again -- its efforts to help students who may be victims.

But there's another problem, which we see in the most recent news reports: CWU isn't any more interested than Professor Manweller is in addressing these problems.2 CWU is in damage control mode, even as parents and students are working on their college applications for the 2013-14 school year.

More on all that later, maybe. Meanwhile, I'm giving CWU's sexual harassment reporting system a D+.

1This was the fourth comment to my "The Manweller Report" post. Two subsequent posters urged her to report Professor Manweller, which can be done, if not anonymously, very discreetly.
2See, for example, "CWU Official: Manweller Probe Reveals No Wrongdoing," in the Yakima Herald-Republic. Make your own decision on whether the probe reveals wrongdoing by reading the report for yourself -- the body of the report is only 17 pages long.

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Daily Record Editorial on Manweller

It is probably in the nature of small-town newspapers to be cautious about volatile issues involving the largest employer in town and charismatic public figures. Even so, the Daily Record's editorial about the Manweller Report is pretty damning, as far as it goes.1,2

As I read the editorial, it became clear that it is much simpler to ignore the election and assume Professor Manweller will be elected, then look at his academic life and his life as a State Representative, and at CWU past and present. This removes the irrelevant but confusing concerns about any political motivation of the investigation.

Ethical professional educators will recognize -- and citizens need to understand -- that there is absolutely nothing worse than trading grades for sexual favors. Manweller has failed his academic field and his colleagues at CWU and beyond. He as failed his department and Central Washington University. Most of all, of course, he has failed his students, and he has failed recent past and near future graduates of CWU generally.

Professor Manweller has said that he will continue as a CWU faculty member, taking leaves of absence as necessary for his duties in Olympia. He will continue to be a well-known sexual predator, and his long pattern of preying on students will either stop or, more likely, not stop. In an era of belated attention to sex abuse on campuses (former Penn State President Graham Spanier was indicted just the other day for his role in the Sandusky scandal), this is a remarkable and most unfortunate outcome.

Depending on how well newspapers like the Daily Record do their jobs, Representative Manweller's history of trading sexual favors for grades will follow him to Olympia either as rumors or as well-known alarms. Fellow legislators and citizens alike will unavoidably think, when seeking help from Representative Manweller, about the diversity of bargaining options Manweller might consider.

The point that the Daily Record's editorial makes most clearly is CWU's enormous failure to protect students from Professor Manweller for over half a decade. The magnitude of this failure is virtually incalculable. Female victims learned not to look to institutions for help. Students who participated in Manweller's scheme learned that academic excellence is optional. The list could go on and on.

Professor Manweller has made a political career of claiming that he's a persecuted conservative in supposedly liberal academia. If nothing else, this case suggests the exact opposite: CWU avoided acting because of his political activities, not in spite of them.

1Everyone should read the Manweller Report. The body of the report is only 17 pages long. You can read it here.
2This important editorial should be available free to anyone interested in reading it. Unfortunately, it is behind a paywall. Here is a link to it.