April 2, 1995

Joan Carpenter, Vice President for Human Resources 
     and Affirmative Action Officer 
Skytop Offices
Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York 13244-1170

SUBJECT: FORMAL GRIEVANCE AGAINST PROFESSOR STEPHEN DOBYNS FOR
                      SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Dear Ms. Carpenter:

I write to lodge a formal grievance against Professor Stephen Dobyns for sexual harassment of me at a party last Friday night (March 31, 1995) attended by English Department graduate students and faculty members.

Professor Dobyns is a member of the Creative Writing faculty of the English Department in which I am a Literature graduate student just completing my M.A. degree. I have never taken a course from him and I do not know him well and previously had only exchanged a few words of casual conversation. Evidently, however, he knows me and my intellectual work and my interest in questions of feminism, the politics of gender, and Marxism.

While another person and I were chatting at the party, in a room full of people, Professor Dobyns came up to the two of us and immediately initiated a series of aggressive and hostile remarks and actions. When I did not respond to his initial remarks, Professor Dobyns put his arm around another male guest next to him and told him, within my earshot, that he (Dobyns) was “looking at my breasts." When I was angered and then walked away Professor Dobyns called out to me “You stupid Stalinist bitch!" When I did not accept this remark in silence, he responded finally by throwing the drink he had in his hand in my face.

The Syracuse University Faculty Manual defines sexual harassment as “unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature that relates to the gender or sexual identity of an individual and that has the purpose or effect of creating an intimidating or hostile environment for study, work, or social living. The policy covers activity both on campus and off” (pg. 38). In this incident, I was singled out for literal physical, highly suggestive and definitely hostile sexual intimidation by a member of the Syracuse University professoriat. The incident has caused me public embarrassment and continuing mental anguish that is even now, some forty-eight hours afterward, affecting my ability to concentrate on my studies, specifically on my writing for and completion of my M.A. work. While this incident did not occur on the “campus” of Syracuse University, it occurred at a site that is an extension of the academic workplace. This party, which was hosted by a graduate Creative Writing student to celebrate the reading of his fiction earlier in the evening, was an extension of academic activity. In fact, this academic activity extended beyond Syracuse University as in addition to other Syracuse University faculty and staff members, one guest who witnessed these incidents was Denis Johnson, a visiting fiction writer for the Raymond Carver Reading Series.

In an institution that claims to be a “student centered University” and expresses a commitment to guaranteeing an equal education to all students regardless of sex, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, national origin or physical abilities, such actions toward me are an appalling violation of my rights as a student, as a woman, and as a human being. Allowing such threatening acts of verbal, sexual and physical intimidation on the part of Professor Stephen Dobyns to continue makes Syracuse University a hostile and quite harmful workplace environment for women and prevents them from receiving the equal education that this university officially endorses.

I wish to add that in the last day or so I have subsequently received many phone calls in which I have learned that this kind of sexual intimidation has evidently been a pattern of Professor Dobyns' behavior as a faculty member here.

I am in full agreement with the University's argument that, “sexual harassment corrodes the values most central to the mission of the University” and will hold it to its promise that, “avoiding its occurrence is of the highest priority” (Faculty Manual, pg. 37). I demand that all the administrative officers and members of the academic community take careful note of my formal grievance and that the appropriate officers of Syracuse University reply to this letter, in a timely manner, to explain what they are doing to see to it that Professor Stephen Dobyns' intimidation of female students stops now!

Sincerely,


Jennifer M. Cotter
Graduate Student
Department of English
Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York 13244-1170


PS: You can reach me through my mailbox in the English Office, 401 
Hall of Languages.

cc: Professor Richard Fallis, Chair, Department of English;
    Dean Robert Jensen, College of Arts and Sciences;
    Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Gershon Vincow;
    Dean of the Graduate School Howard Johnson;
    Associate Dean of the Graduate School Charles Watson;
    Professor Diane Murphy, Director, Women's Studies Program;
    members of the University and city community at large.