At UAlbany, I guess people are willing to claim that it does in order to enable academic dishonesty, sexual harassment and retaliation to continue.
As you may know, the student was issued a "cease and desist" order earlier this week, which you shared with me and with [redacted].The message below and the attached message are in direct violation to that order. I am advising you that [Michael Barberich] is in a position to follow through on this case of harassment with legal counsel and has filed claims within our University Police Department and via UUP through [redacted - perhaps his wife?]. [Michael Barberich] is experiencing violence in the workplace and feels sufficiently threatened so as to possibly now follow through in a formal, legal manner.
Jeanette Altarriba to Estela M. Rivero, Clarence L. McNeill, Sue R. Faerman, and others, December 8, 2011 12:09 PM
I hadn't been issued a cease and desist order, and could not have violated a non-existent cease and desist order. I'd been reporting Barberich's academic dishonesty and sexual harassment all semester long, which Barberich would not stop, and which Altarriba would not make him stop. She'd forced me unwillingly to stay in the class of Mr. Barberich, who I'd reported for (among many other things) joking in class about torturing one of his minority teaching assistants with electric shocks. As a Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Sexual Assault, Altarriba should have had no illusions about what her decision to force someone to be further subjected to offensive sexual harassment would be - severe distress. As for her choosing to enable Barberich to continue to engage in academic dishonesty and sexual harassment as much as he liked - what an abnormal psychologist she is. Or at any rate, I hope that's not normative behavior for psychologists!
"Violence in the workplace"? Barberich apparently found it easiest to deal with the valid complaints against him by making false accusations of a nature similar to the valid complaints against him - ever the plagiarist, he.
In the Fall 2011 semester I'd first Barberich's behavior to the Communication Department office on October 6, 11:11 AM, and sought an Degree Audit exception that would let me drop the class. Department Secretary Debbie Bourassa responded "Your request for a DARS exception for COM 265 is DENIED" (CAPS emphasis hers). All the rampant academic dishonesty in the class was evidently perfectly acceptable.
I met with Jeanette Altarriba in person to make the case again on Monday, October 10th at 10AM. By that time Barberich had also engaged in sexual harassment. Altarriba was not very concerned about the rampant academic dishonesty, but she claimed to be very concerned about Barberich's sexual harassment. She pretended to be sympathetic, but refused to grant me academic accommodation, however, making my further subjection to Barberich's offensive behavior a condition of receiving my degree and graduating. She encouraged me to keep reporting his behavior, perhaps to discourage me from reporting it outside the department where it might do more good to report it (though even outside the department it did no good to report it, I found).
In Jeanette Altarriba's November 9, 2011 3:55 PM e-mail, she wrote in part:
Thank you for writing, as you have every right and have been encouraged, to do so [...] Do not consider that you have become any kind of "target" [for retaliation] as some have suggested, that's simply not the case. I, as Chair, and as a Faculty Member, always listen to students and never discourage them from discussing their issues of concern, no matter what those issues may be, so you can of course bring these kinds of items to my attention.
Of course I had indeed become a target for retaliation, and ultimately she did act quite viciously to discourage me from having my complaints addressed - she tried to have me barred from campus entirely.
I'm not sure what "claim" Barberich might have filed with the UAlbany Police. He did file a false police report on December 6, 2011, so Altarriba might have been referring to that false police report. I'm likewise uncertain what kind of "claim" Barberich might have filed with United University Professions. Barberich's false police report does state "A copy of [Barberich's] email to his Union Representative was forwarded to ITRO". The UAlbany Police told me "As for the copy of his letter to his Union, I can't release that as it could be considered a confidential communication between a union member and his representative." However, given that Barberich had filed a false police report, any union involvement in that would seem to be more criminal in nature, aiding in retaliation, than a legitimate confidential communication - one might more accurately describe it as a confederacy than as a union.
Had the union really been involved, they would have insisted on a hearing, proper notice, etc. - UUP stated so themselves when I contacted them. No hearing ever happened - UAlbany made very sure of that. It's unclear if a complaint really went to UUP; Barberich might have simply had his CSEA spokeswoman wife send a letter on his behalf - ironic, given that he'd badmouthed her in class. He'd complained in class about his wife working, since that meant either he had to take care of their kids or get a sitter. I suppose he was trying to puff himself up to students, to imply he earned enough that his wife - in his opinion - shouldn't be working? However, a union spokesperson likely earns far more than an untenured visiting assistant professor like he was at that time.
Date: August 27, 2012 at 10:37:51 AM EDT
From: [UUP President] Phillip Smith
To: Christopher Philippo [...], [UUP VP for Academics] Jamie Dangler
Subject: Re: UUP: "to advance education in a democracy and democracy in education"
Christopher....
Since I don't have full details on what you reported here, I can't really comment. But I will address your last sentence: Yes, unions have an obligation to provide a "duty of fair representation." Meaning, we can't pick and chose whom we represent or how. Each member is entitled to to best defense afforded under the provisions of a contract. We've been in the position of representing members who've committed crimes....but that's limited to ensuring that any disciplinary actions taken by SUNY are within the bounds of our contract. Mostly, that involves making sure that people are given a fair hearing, proper notice, etc. Like the courts, we must make a presumption that a person is innocent until proven otherwise. And, YES, we're not always told the truth by those we represent....but...it is what it is.
Hope this helps....
Phil
>>> Christopher Philippo [...] 8/23/2012 08:48 AM >>>
[...]
I was concerned about a police report made by a non-tenured professor that I'd accidentally stumbled across via a broad FOIL request. The professor had been reported by a student to university administrators for academic dishonesty, faculty ethics violations, sexual harassment, and retaliation. The police report was made the day after the professor had been informed by an administrator that he'd been reported. In it the professor claimed to the police he believed the student was "unstable," wanted to become a "martyr," and caused him to "fear" there was an imminent danger to his "personal safety" and the safety of the 160+ students registered for his course. He reported the student had been told not to attend the class, which was not true, and that he feared the student would come anyway. Since a single student cannot pose a danger to 160+ people under ordinary circumstances, it appears he was implying the student was armed in an attempt to get the student shot by the police - a day after the professor had learned he'd been reported for state and federal offenses for which he could be fired and/or tried.
It's quite obviously a false police report; the police did not find the professor to be remotely credible. The police did not send anyone to the class or attempt to determine the student's whereabouts, etc. The report mentions an e-mail from the professor to his union representative was forwarded to the police, though it doesn't indicate who forwarded it.
I would suppose the professor was represented by UUP, but it's possible the professor hadn't been honest with his union representative just as he hadn't been honest with the police. Perhaps it's also possible that he was represented by another union. Considering the other false aspects of the report, it's certainly possible that the e-mail might not have involved a union representative at all but someone (or a fictitious person) the professor was falsely claiming to be his union representative who really wasn't.
Retaliating against a student by reporting the student to the police as an unstable, imminent danger to the safety of 160+ people after learning the student had reported him for academic dishonesty, faculty ethics violations, sexual harassment, and retaliation does not seem consistent with UUP's mission "to advance education in a democracy and democracy in education." I'd like to think UUP would not approve!
Other unions have on occasion defended outrageous behavior, which is hard to understand. Unions have done this country so much good, I don't understand why they'd do that when it may alienate not just the public and the government but even their own law-abiding members. Defending members only would seem to make sense when they've performed their job and acted in accordance with the law, but maybe there's something about the role of a union that I'm missing. Are unions obligated to assist all members who have paid their dues, regardless of what they've done?
Best regards,
Christopher K. Philippo
UAlbany denied me a hearing (not that a hearing there could ever be fair, nor would I feel safe going there for one), and no doubt has done the same for many others.
If this professor is so horrible, enough students WILL talk about it and learn to avoid him. Everything at this university is now about enrollments, so if his class suffers from low enrollments as a result, the administration will start looking into what problems he might be having.
That's all you can do.
His class wouldn't suffer from low enrollments because it's a required class and the department won't give people DARS exceptions for it for any reason. Many of the students in the class benefitted from Barberich's academic dishonesty - he permitted them to openly cheat on the daily quizzes, to engage in academic dishonesty on the Information Literacy Project, he artificially inflated their grades through a variety of methods, etc. He even cancelled the final exam and gave everyone an A on it according to a document that UAlbany sent me in response to a FOIL request (prior to UAlbany threatening me not to contact the FOIL officer, among others). How many UAlbany students would complain about a free A on a final exam? All of them should report something like that for reasons of academic integrity, but I doubt if many (if any) did.
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