Thursday, May 3, 2007

Chronicle of Higher Education

Southern University System's Board Will Look Into Harassment Allegations That Led Its Chairman to Step Down Temporarily
By KARIN FISCHER

The Southern University system's Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting on Saturday to sort through allegations that Johnny G. Anderson, who recently stepped down as the panel's chairman, sexually harassed female employees.

Mr. Anderson, who also is a top aide to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, temporarily stepped down last month to remove the appearance of "improprieties" while the university-system board considers the results of a report into the sexual-harassment allegations.

Meanwhile, a lawyer for Mr. Anderson has contended that Ralph Slaughter, president of the Southern University system, made the complaints public in order to try to force him out of office. The accusations, which have not been described in detail, first came to light in a letter from Mr. Slaughter to a state senator in November.

In the letter, sent to Sen. Charles D. Jones, a Democrat who is chairman of the Senate & Governmental Affairs Committee and a Southern alumnus, Mr. Slaughter said he did not follow the university system's normal procedures for dealing with such accusations because he reported to Mr. Anderson and because he could not adequately protect the employees from future harassment. He asked Senator Jones's committee to conduct a "confidential investigation."

Mr. Anderson, who is Ms. Blanco's assistant chief of staff, has denied the allegations and, until late last month, refused to relinquish either post.

In response, Governor Blanco, a Democrat, appointed a Baton Rouge lawyer who specializes in employment law to investigate the accusations.

But in a report to the governor last month, the lawyer, Mark E. Falcon of the firm Avant & Falcon, said he was unable to issue findings because the inquiry had failed to turn up enough information. Mr. Falcon said that he had not found any written complaints and that Mr. Slaughter had declined to speak with him. Some people Mr. Falcon had identified as being involved in the allegations also declined to participate.

Mr. Falcon criticized Mr. Slaughter's "recalcitrance," saying it had hindered the investigation. "His refusal to answer my questions cannot be justified," he wrote.

Marie Centanni, a spokeswoman for Ms. Blanco, said the governor does not intend to take any corrective action because Mr. Falcon's report said "there was no basis for doing so."

The report did, however, yield a flurry of correspondence. In a letter to Governor Blanco, Jill L. Craft, a lawyer for Mr. Slaughter, called the report "slanderous and libelous" and unfair to her client. She questioned Mr. Falcon's authority to investigate the matter and said that Mr. Slaughter had turned over documents related to the charges to a federal grand jury. (The United States attorney in Baton Rouge has not confirmed such an investigation.)

"Dr. Slaughter will not be pressured, in any fashion, to reveal what he told the federal grand jury or to reveal what information, including documents and their contents, he provided," Ms. Craft wrote.

And Mary Olive Pierson, a lawyer for Mr. Anderson, wrote to Governor Blanco that Mr. Slaughter's accusations were "part of a plot to disparage the good name of Johnny Anderson in an effort to defeat his re-election as chairman of the Southern University Board of Supervisors." Mr. Anderson was elected to a third term as chairman of the board just days before the allegations surfaced.

In an interview, Ms. Pierson said Mr. Anderson temporarily vacated his position to "avoid any inappropriate appearances or improprieties."

Dale N. Atkins, the interim chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors, declined to comment on the substance of Saturday's meeting. An agenda, however, says the board will consider Mr. Falcon's report and "any appropriate action, including personnel actions relative" to the report.