The Chronicle of Higher Education, a national publication, wrote an article about the breakdown of UNM’s shared governance after photos featuring an English professor and several graduate students surfaced on a sadomasochist website in 2007.
The Sept. 12 article said creative writing professor Lisa D. Chavez encouraged her graduate students to get jobs with People Exchanging Power, an Albuquerque-based company that acts as a support network for people with sexual fetishes and offers phone-sex services and opportunities to rendezvous with some of its employees.
Carrie Cutler, a graduate student in the English Department, said the debacle has left her uneasy about her standing in the department.
“There is a lot of mistrust, a lot of suspicion and a lot of anger,” she said. “In this case, there are a lot of people in the department who try to blame the people who are saying there is a problem.”
Before the incident, Chavez was Cutler’s dissertation adviser but was dropped when the allegations surfaced. She said her efforts to file a complaint with the University have gone nowhere.
University officials didn’t respond to several calls or e-mails since last Tuesday.
“I’ve been to the president’s office. I went to the Dean of Students. I went everywhere I could because I was diligently trying to go through the channels available to me. It is not easy for people to pay attention to harassment, at least in my experience here,” Cutler said.
Cutler also tried to file a complaint with the Office of Equal Opportunity — UNM’s branch to report allegations of ethical breaches, workplace discrimination and sexual harassment— and complained of a hostile learning and working environments.
“They were exceedingly hostile,” she said.
A poet, Cutler said an effective creative writing program requires trust between students and their instructors. Without that, she said, she is unable to get the most out of the program. Her new adviser teaches non-fiction.
On the website, Chavez posted under the pseudonym, “Mistress Jade.” Her advertisement said, “Do you want a biker bitch, an imperious goddess or a stern teacher ready to punish unruly students?”
In one photo, she posed with then-graduate student Liz Derrington.
While Chavez, who still teaches at UNM, was never found guilty of any wrongdoing. Still, three professors filed lawsuits about whether the University followed proper protocol when handling the situation.
In an e-mail, Chavez said the situation should have been over three years ago.
“It is only a few people who continue to drag down our department by their refusal to let this matter rest,” she said.
English professor Sharon Warner was the director of the creative writing program at the time and was one of the first to learn about the allegations after receiving an envelope containing photos from the website and an anonymous letter complaining about the incidents.
In 2009, Warner filed a lawsuit against UNM for breach of implied contract, breach of covenant of good faith and retaliation. She also filed complaints with OEO but was unsuccessful. She claimed the administration did nothing to remedy complaints brought against Chavez, and the English department suffered as a result.
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Warner claims UNM is procedurally required to acknowledge complaints she filed with OEO. Her lawsuit states that there is a Graduate School of Arts and Sciences policy that prohibits sexual relations between students and faculty.
“The University needs to solve this problem, for the sake of the students,” Warner said. “They shouldn’t allow this type of dysfunction to continue for years and years. It’s completely irresponsible.”
She said her husband has suffered from most of the retaliation. Because Warner is a tenured professor, the University cannot take her salary away but it can take her husband’s, she said.
Her husband, Teddy Warner, filed another lawsuit against the University shortly after his wife filed hers in 2009. He claims the University retaliated against him by cutting his pay by 20 percent because of his wife’s activities, a cut that is burdensome when compounded by legal fees.
“We’ve spent more than $50,000 on lawyer fees,” he said. “The University doesn’t care how much they spend because they are spending taxpayers’ money.”
Teddy said the University told him two weeks after his wife complained to OEO that permanent non-grant funds he received from the school would be removed when his contract expired.
Professor Diane Thiel also filed a lawsuit in 2009 against the University, in which she claims the administration mishandled the investigation and should instead have allowed faculty to reach a ruling on Chavez’s fate.
“Upper administration’s refusal to forward this matter to an objective Faculty Ethics Committee, despite more than 16 faculty formally requesting this procedure, in line with University policy, is a glaring example of the lack of shared governance at UNM,” Thiel said.
She said the complaints are too serious to ignore and claims this was a case of professor and administrative abuse.
“This matter involves the underlying principles of our profession being violated in numerous ways and in a very public way — continuing retaliation against those willing to stand up and speak,” she said.
Chavez attacked the accusations lobbed at her and said the issue is closed.
“This is all part of a campaign of lies and misrepresentation. The complaints against me were thoroughly investigated by UNM, and I was cleared,” she said.
