Ex-UM provost harassed women, has sex in offices
Another kick in the nuts for the school, whose second highest official was... not so good.
Sounds like it's open season in Ann Arbor.
It should always be open season for people who do what this person is accused of.
I wasn’t sure until I saw a picture of him, but I was fairly certain he spoke at my graduation in 2019 (I assume that he spoke at many more as well) and remember him being a pretty funny and mild mannered guy. Unfortunate to hear about what he was like in private, and to read that the school had multiple chances starting in 2005 to do something meaningful about it and never did. Between him, Anderson, and the other doctor in one of the departments whose name escapes me, I really hope the university takes the proper actions in future cases because their recent track record is checkered to say the least.
Sounds like Schlissel knew about this and not only let it go, but promoted him.
If that's true, he needs to be flushed.
You seriously believe he was given free reign?? Puhlease
Pulled a quote from that article.
Current U-M President Mark Schlissel, who appointed Philbert to his provost position in 2017, heard about a lawsuit against Philbert with allegations of misbehavior, but after review did not think it disqualified Philbert, the report says.
Looks like investigation was done. Although, in the article it suggests Schlissel didn't have the entire story.
It also says Schlissel did not know of multiple other complaints that had been filed in the years before Philbert's promotion.
So Schlissel was unaware of Philbert's conduct [edit: and complaint record (which is detailed later on in the article)] before his tenure. I can envision several reasons for this [edit: some of them innocuous, others not;] but I don't care to speculate without further investigation. It DOES however seem like once reports on Philbert came to his desk, he took them seriously and the university moved to sever ties with Philbert.
After Philbert was named provost, three reports of his behavior were brought to the attention of either Schlissel or someone in his office, the report said.
(Article continues to describe those reports between Fall 2017 and January 2020.)
One day after the last report, Schlissel placed Philbert on leave and started the investigation.
I'm not ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater yet ("flush" Schlissel as you say). And especially if Schlissel decides to turn this into an investigation into failures that occurred at multiple levels to allow Philbert's advancement, then I could see his position remaining strong. Either way, more investigation will (should?) probably be done into what Schlissel knew and when he knew it.
It's one thing to have the perp idling at the school and Schlissel unaware.
It's entirely something else for the president to promote him to the 2nd highest post and have failed to do due diligence, especially if he was aware of at least one issue.
Based on what the Freep reported, ignorance was a significant failure, too.
What percentage of leaders at organizations like U of M are still trying to or are actively having sex with as many of their employees as possible? Is this a one-off thing or is it like 25%? Along those lines what percentage of these leaders bosses know about it and continue to not do anything about it as long as they don’t get caught?
At times I think we as a society are starting to really crack down on this but the cynic in me suspects sexual harassment is just as rampant as ever.
At my first job 7 years ago, it felt like what you hear about the '50s. Older married dudes with rank paying clearly too much attention to young female employees. A few colleagues eventually quit, but the job was in the middle of nowhere, so lots of them stayed simply because there was nowhere else to go.
For fuck’s sake. Stop being despicable human beings. It’s not that difficult.
Power corrupts, people are shitty. History suggests that it's actually quite difficult for those in power to remain grounded and decent. There are many exceptions, of course, but such behavior is nothing new or shocking.
Yep. People's behaviors change depending on their circumstances. I believe it's Bill Burr who has a bit about how Tiger Woods did what tons of guys would do if given the opportunity. That's why I've given up judging people in high pressure roles anymore, even with more innocuous things. People make mistakes. People do dumb stuff. Some people do it repeatedly like an addiction.
We watched a training video at work a few year ago (prior to the 2016 election) and the story was that powerful people become unaware that they are doing odd things in front of others. Two of the examples were Donald Trump's weird comb over and the other one was the owner of the Rolling Stone Magazine who would (in the middle of an interview) pull out a cutting board from his desk and an onion, starting cutting up the onion, then pulled a bottle of vodka out of the fridge next to his desk and proceeded to drink the vodka neat and eat the cut up raw onion.
So yes, I get what you are saying about weird behavior, but what this provost did is blatant, in your face morally wrong and he knew it.
MeanJoe07?
No, he has an excuse: chlamydia rattled brain. It's a medical condition.
No, that would be syphilis.
I should clarify that I'm not excusing what he did or suggesting that he's innocent or that there shouldn't be consequences for your actions.
The cynic in me thinks these shitty people do shitty stuff in other areas of life too, and the people who promote them or keep them around also do shitty stuff and all these shitty people protect each other. That's shitty.
Sychophants who backstab and only care about themselves move up pretty quickly.
What I don’t get is why these idiots are sheltered. Can we not find decent human beings who are as effective in their roles? Is there that high a correlation between being as asshole and being an effective administrator?
Power (and money) due funny things to some people. I imagine a lot of good administrators start out as decent human beings... but some let their status and authority erode that decency to a point where you get... stuff like this.
Can't be coincidence that we're seeing crummy stuff like this throughout higher education, business, entertainment, etc.
Got to give the do their due.
Or their doo doo.
Holy hell... you got me there. This Friday just needs to be over. Well done.
I was reading this story while my wife was watching her annual sexual harassment prevention training videos this morning. You know the ones, so campy, where the female manager suggests doing her underling's performance review on a Friday night, after work, over dinner.
Those videos always make me question whether such lame, pervy scenarios ever transpire in the real world. In over two decades as a professional, I've never once encountered anything remotely resembling this crap in the real world.
Alas, I have not been employed at U of M during this time either.
Yeah same here. It assuredly happens, but generally serial harassers are often very good at hiding their tracks and never do this in plain sight so cartoonishly
My office had an ice cream social a couple years ago. The Director, myself and a young, female employee were having a conversation. He completely ignored me, even though he and I had far more in common than he had with the young lady. About a year later, he was pressured to resign after a dozen women went to his boss to complain about sexual harassment. One of the rumors had him buying drinks for a new employee at a work-related happy hour, cornering her at the bar, and offering to drive her home. He was easily 30 years older than her. That story sounded just like the cliche stories you see in the harassment videos.
Is it considered less pervy in Russia when you harass and imbibe during work hours?
Based off the demographics of this website you are likely a white dude.
White guys aren't generally the most targeted group in workplace sexual harassment. Based off statistic around prevalence, it is almost certain that in your two decades as a professional you have worked with someone who has done something like this or been the subject of something like this.
Just because nobody talked to you about it doesn't mean it didn't happen.
"Based off the demographics of this website you are likely a white dude."
Where can we find this demographic study of MGoBloggers?
It evolved in most workplaces, demographic point is in fact pointless.
In the 80's (or before) it was not much of an issue or so they thought. When this happened and reported there was not much in the way consequences. There were no awareness, training, or enforcement..it was just something that everyone saw and turned their heads the other way.
In the 90's when Corporate liability kicked in, Legal & Risk Management Departments said oh shit we need to do something about this started training programs and a half ass attempts at inclusion and sexual harassment followed by sign-offs that limited litigation. It still went on, but it was he said/she said so it would likely be dismissed without evidence.
In the 2000's ZERO Tolerance was pretty much standard. Found guilty and you gone, and not just doing the walk of shame, but something that will stick with you for the rest of your career.
This asshat was doing this in the 2000's, He gets everything that's coming to him including anyone that knew and did nothing about it.
I learned today that sexual harassment wasn’t legally workplace discrimination until 1986.
Until the '80s, and in some respects much later, it could be fairly said that workplace sexual harassment was considered one of the perks of being the boss. When I started working bigger enterprise deals, I found that sales acumen was often considered less important to closing them than getting the customer laid. Some of my older, more experienced colleagues bragged about it. They'd make a point of taking customers over to the strip clubs and rub 'n tugs in Windsor or Toronto. That kind of thing will get you and your customer both fired now.
Several people at my company have got caught screwing in the work bathroom and they know there are cameras in the hallways.
Hotel Putingrad,
my wife was also completing sexual harassment training today. Is this some widely recognized day for this? Do we have the same wife?
Let July 31st forevermore be known as Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Day!
August 1st, 2020 at 12:33 AM ^
It was also the final day to complete this training at my company too
I have encountered plenty. It definitely happens.
this story makes me sick. all who knew but turned blind eyes on such behaviors should be let go.
Alright now. This has gotten ridiculous.
Dude was making the most of his opportunities:
"Philbert also continued to engage in multiple sexual relationships with University employees. For nearly his entire tenure as Provost, he was in simultaneous sexual relationships with at least two University employees, sometimes more. He pressed some of these women to send him explicit photos, which he stored on his University-owned devices. And he engaged in sexual contact with them in University offices, including with one woman on a near-daily basis for a time."
Does he have any kind of pension with U of M? Or 457B? Yank U of M's contributions and give them to victims of sexual assault?
Really concerned about the double standard we are showing when our OWN university is under investigation. When PSU, MSU, and OSU all had scandals we came at it with such intensity I felt proud to be a part of this community. Now we have scandals of our own with Philbert and Anderson and everything seems....quiet.
Not to mention, threads getting locked now under the guise of "limited mod capabilities". Call it out for what it is. It's damage control and trying to brush it under the rug. None of the threads against other schools were ever locked in this way.
Agreed, it's a bad look for us, but beyond that it saddens me.
What I always thought set us apart as we wouldn't make excuses for administrators who failed to act if we found it had happened at U of M. I thought this board's reaction to Gibbons' mess was fairly, universally in condemnation of what he did.
PSU types would ask me (knowing I was a Michigan fan) if I thought U of M would unite to condemn Schembechler if he had failed to act on a situation similar to Paterno's malfeasance. I always responded yes, we would demand action in the form of the statue being torn down, renaming facilities and the like and we wouldn't wait until outside pressure was too great. We'd do it without being told to do it.
Most of the comments in that thread condemned Schembechler for not acting which I agree with. I think everybody should have been able to chime in without the thread lock.
Anyway, it's early days with respect to finding out Schembechler knew. Maybe there's something mitigating in his defense, but I doubt it.
Yeah... a front page post within an hour of the Bo story with an endorsement for burning everything to the ground certainly sounds like the site is "brushing it under the rug." I'm sure Brian will avoid this story in similar fashion.
Have another hit on your MGOBONG.
Um, what? They're not getting locked because some people are saying sexual harassment is bad and we should fire/sue/imprison those responsible.
We all knew that the reality bubble that university administrations have lived in for decades would eventually burst.
We just did not know that it would happen all within 6 months.
Fine. Faster is better at this point.
Moral of the story: Philbert is a strange name.
That's nuts...
Was that wrong? Should I not have done that? I tell ya, I plead ignorance on this one. If anyone had said anything to me at all when I first started that that kind of thing was frowned upon...
One of my favorite scenes among many from that show. I use the "was that wrong " line often. Plus one to you.