My sister, Cathy Kemp, has a Ph.D. in philosophy (she also has a JD, but does not practice) and teaches philosophy, currently at Penn State. She and her husband migrated from Denver to central PA when Penn State offered her husband (Mitchell) the chair of its philosophy department, and offered Cathy a tenure track position as well.

Seemed to be a great move, after leading a successful department at the University of Colorado at Denver, this was a step up for Mitchell. But then Mitchell noticed that some of the philosophy graduate students were experiencing rough treatment by some of the senior members of the faculty. The treatment seemed to be focused on minority and female students, so Mitchell followed the recommended course of action, and turned the issue over to the campus office of affirmative action. 11 days later, Mitchell was demoted from the chair position.

He went through the EEOC, and last fall filed a lawsuit in federal court claiming retaliatory demotion against his employer. Needless to say, working for an employer who you are embroiled in litigation with simultaneously has not been a pleasant experience for Cathy and Mitchell. Seeing as this has been going on for over 2 years now, I wonder how they have held up this long.

Anyway, although the filing of the lawsuit makes this a mater of public record, I have not widely discussed the issue, but the central PA media has finally pick up the story (probably because Penn State’s women’s basketball coach is under fire for discrimination at the moment):

Mitchell Aboulafia, 54, of Harris Township, has said that Susan Welch, dean of the College of the Liberal Arts, and an associate dean illegally demoted him in March 2004. They did so, Aboulafia has claimed in a civil complaint, because he raised and reported sex-discrimination worries in the college.

Aboulafia led the philosophy department from July 2003 until his demotion.

During that period, according to the 23-page complaint, Aboulafia received “numerous, troubling reports” about some faculty members.

The reports alleged that some students, teaching assistants and young faculty members were subjected to discrimination and harassment, according to the complaint. Those reports suggested that the behavior was in violation of federal and state law and university policy, Aboulafia has claimed.

His complaint reads: “… many of the most serious reports involved one particular senior professor, who oversaw the academic work of graduate students in his role as a teacher and dissertation director ….”

That professor is not named in the complaint.

When Aboulafia took the reports to Welch and Ron Filippelli, then the associate dean in the college, the deans did not take “any meaningful action to address these issues,” the complaint reads.

“Instead, both Dean Welch and Associate Dean Filippelli appeared to be more concerned with protecting the department’s senior faculty members who were named in the reports than they were with protecting students, graduate teaching assistants or junior faculty members …,” it reads.

. . . .

Aboulafia declined to comment for this article. In his complaint, lodged in August in federal court, he said that he contacted the university Office of Affirmative Action with his concerns on March 11, 2004.

Ken Lehrman, who heads that office, told Aboulafia “that he had acted properly in contacting” the office, according to the complaint.

Four days later, Aboulafia has said, he received e-mails from Welch and Filippelli. They told him that “such matters should be kept within the college,” according to the complaint.

Lehrman could not be reached Tuesday.

But the university provost office told Welch and Filippelli that their responses to Aboulafia were improper, Aboulafia has claimed.

Then, on March 22, 2004, Welch demoted Aboulafia from his position with little explanation, according to the complaint.

By September, Aboulafia filed a charge with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission. The U.S. Department of Justice, in July, granted Aboulafia the right to sue.

Link.

Last Week’s Results: Should the public have an opportunity to have their questions and concerns addressed before the proposed mega dairy, a private enterprise, begins construction? 70%-Yes 30%-No Total responses: 43

[Jon] Rettinger, who lives with his family in the 6300 block of East 14th Road, objected to the operation, and had his attorney appeal to the plan commission. Snyder introduced several documents into evidence from various educational and governmental and/or industry related groups outlining Rettinger’s objections.

Each side interprets the zoning ordinance differently, with Rettinger claiming that certain restrictions apply in all zoning districts. The plan commission agreed with [plan director Ralph] Booker’s interpretation that restrictions found applicable in one zone may not be appropriate in another.

Both sides spoke of the possible need to update the ordinance, one of the few items on which both parties agreed.

The meeting was attended by about 100 people, the majority of whom made it clear that their vision for the Indiana countryside does not include an influx of industrial-size hog farms, also known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

“These pigs farms are going to destroy what (economy) we’ve still got left,” one member of the audience told facilitators Nancy Kinder, director of Eastern Indiana Development District, and Joe Pearson, staff associate at Purdue University’s Center for Regional Development.

Others in attendance complained that the swine CAFOs “being pushed down our throats” would pollute Randolph County’s air and water and make the county unattractive to new business.

“Your local land-use laws are what can protect you,” Kinder told the crowd. (In an interview after the meeting, Kinder criticized Randolph County’s Area Planning Commission for not addressing concerns about CAFOs raised by the public in recent years. “No planning is bad planning,” Kinder told The Star Press).

This administration does not support a moratorium on large livestock farms. Most farmers are good managers and protect the environment.

I think as long as we keep the hog operations in the agricultural segment and we don’t put them down on the courthouse square, and as long as we use the good science that is given to us by the universities and the ag engineers, I think they are fine. Then it comes to regulations. We have to make sure they are followed.

Sophomore Alexis Schwab was denied financial assistance for her junior year, after checking ‘yes’ to a drug conviction on her FAFSA financial aid form. Schwab was accused of possession of marijuana last year

“We’re now facing an onslaught,” Wendy Carpenter, chairwoman of Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Randolph County (ECCRC), told about 150 people who attended a meeting at the county fairgrounds Tuesday night. “We need your help.”

Carroll County ranked first with 232,653 hogs, Clinton County ranked second with 182,716 hogs, and Decatur County ranked third with 154,586 hogs in 2002. Randolph County had 69,440 hogs in the latest census.

Randolph County Commissioner Ron Chalfant, a farmer, told The Star Press in January that county officials decided not to adopt any ordinances to regulate CAFOs because farmers already were saddled with enough state regulations.

“If the county adds to those, it makes it difficult to entice livestock entities,” Chalfant said.

Over in Jackson County, you can take a look and see what happens  Inside a CAFO :

Jackson County hog farmers say they’ve done a poor job of educating the public about changes in agriculture, especially large-scale hog farms.
They hope a recent seminar at the Craig and Denver Klinge farms south of Dudleytown will help correct that and offer a different perspective to the public on confined animal feeding operations.

Not everyone in convinced though:

Opposition to a proposed 8,000-head hog operation northeast of Reddington last summer and fall prompted the discussion. In that case, a special exception granted last October to Talara Lykins of Bartholomew County to operate the hog farm on 10 acres of land has drawn two lawsuits against the Jackson County Board of Zoning Appeals. They remain in litigation.

Those lawsuits address concerns raised by a community group, Families Against (CAFOs) in Reddington, and Jennings Water Utility. Area residents and the utility are concerned about a variety of environmental issues, including a potential threat to area water supplies should the concrete holding pen for thousands of gallons of manure leak or rupture. They’re also concerned about the soil type in the area and other issues.