November 2004

Dear Western State College Community Member:

My name is Bonnie Pitblado, and I am an assistant professor of anthropology at Utah State University in Logan. This letter to all of you is the epilogue to a personal odyssey that began with my hiring as a Western State College faculty member in 1999, and ended this past December when I deposited a check I received as settlement for a lawsuit I filed against the college for violating my civil rights.

The reason I am writing this letter to you now is that when I decided in 2002 to file a federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint and subsequently, a lawsuit against Western, I did so because I saw these actions as the only means available to me—small fry that I am—to illuminate what I perceived as a systemic problem of gender bias on the WSC campus. I wanted my experiences—humiliating and degrading as they were—to be a matter of public record, and then perhaps, just perhaps, a foundation upon which my former colleagues and successors can build an academic community at Western more nurturing to all its members than the one I endured.

For the most part, it is my intention to allow the players in my unfortunate story to speak for themselves through a series of links to their words. But a brief overview is in order to orient you to the situation.

The short version: In 1999, Anna Backer, nearing the time she would apply for tenure as an anthropology faculty member at WSC, was instead subjected to non-renewal of her contract under circumstances, it would turn out, I came to understand entirely too well. Dr. Backer’s departure left a void in the WSC anthropology program which I filled, first as a visiting professor (2000-2001), and then as a tenure-track assistant professor (2001-2002). On virtually my first day on the job, my anthropology colleague Mark Stiger divulged to me his opinion that the women in my new department, that of Natural and Environmental Sciences (NES) weren’t “worth a shit.”

In the two years to come, Mark Stiger treated me as hostilely as I can envision treating another person. Among other acts, he made false statements about me to a BLM official (for which he and his personnel file received a letter of reprimand); refused me access to equipment labeled as belonging to the anthropology program that I needed to run a field trip I was required to lead; attempted to deny me access to secure storage for a small frame of valuable artifacts my team had excavated at the Chance Gulch archaeological site; and while I was in Connecticut holding my dying father’s hand, took garden hoses away from my Chance Gulch field crew, trying to conduct lab work in my absence. He heaped similar abuse on my research associate Beth Ann Camp, M.A., whom he labeled an uncooperative liar; as well as upon Anna Backer, who—as he stated under oath—he characterized as an alcoholic who smoked pot and slept with her students.

When my Department Chair Curt Gravis apparently concluded that the mistreatment had continued long enough and referred my situation to then-Human Resources Director Linda Crouse, then Vice-President Jay Helman responded by phoning me on December 19, 2001 to inform me that my assistant professor’s contract—which I had been awarded just months before—was being non-renewed.

In a one-on-one meeting shortly before that call, Jay Helman characterized the “thing” between Mark Stiger and I as “untenable.” After my non-renewal, President Helman attributed my lost position to “budget cuts;” however, mine was the only faculty position involuntarily non-renewed at that time (39 other non-renewals were staff positions). In addition, the college almost immediately funded a visiting professorship in anthropology at roughly the same level I had been paid, using a combination of college funds and money from a grant Mark Stiger obtained…while offering precisely the same suite of courses I had taught for two years to great reviews. That position continues to be funded—and nearly an identical suite of courses offered—to this very day, undermining the legitimacy of the argument that tight budgets necessitated my expulsion from campus.

Jay Helman’s actions against me did not stop with non-renewal of my position. Shortly after my non-renewal, I learned that I had been awarded a $124,366 grant—from the same organization and in the same grant round that funded the grant Mark Stiger received and used to help the college pay for my replacement’s position. Despite my suggestion to Jay Helman that we use my grant to pay for me to continue to work at Western—allowing Mark Stiger to use his grant money for other purposes (perhaps hiring a third person who could teach even more classes)—President Helman instead elected to reject the grant on my behalf. The loss of the grant, of course, was a blow to my career development, not to mention a seemingly strange response from a cash-strapped institution.

After Mark Stiger’s abusive actions and Jay Helman’s retaliation against me for speaking of them, events transpired like this:

That is my story in a nutshell. Although I admit there were times during my two years at Western that my spirit very nearly broke—three slashed tires and two windows smashed out of my vehicles by a never-positively identified perpetrator didn’t help my frame of mind—I realize now that my journey led me to a good place, both literally and figuratively.

I savor every day that I climb the stairs to my Utah State office, where I am surrounded by friends who stand by me as a scholar and a person. I savor having my husband working just one floor down from me in a position he obtained through Utah State’s “spousal accommodation policy,” designed to help our institution retain valued faculty members. I savor every moment I spend with my gorgeous 15-month old baby boy, whom my husband and I tried to conceive at Western, but couldn’t for the stress. And I savor the hugs and thanks I have received from the many AAUW members who have heard me tell my story publicly, and who are pleased someone is willing to speak out, because, as the AAUW-LAF’s trademarked motto pointedly notes, “Equity is Still an Issue.”

I invite you now to find a way to use my story as the basis to improve the human climate on the WSC campus we once shared. Please click on any of the following web links to learn more about AAUW’s support of my case or to hear from the players themselves. In Mark Stiger’s, Curt Gravis’s and Jay Helman’s deposition transcripts, I’ve highlighted in yellow particularly telling statements.

If you’re in a hurry, simply scroll down until you see the color marking, for instance, Mark Stiger’s observation that all of his female archaeology colleagues at Western were “disruptive” to the department and that he was “happy” to see me go, and Gravis’s statement that “Mark engages in such extreme behavior that it seems as if he’s very much beyond the norm.” Jay Helman’s testimony is noteworthy to me primarily for the volumes of important information he either “didn’t know” or “couldn’t recall.” Some might conclude that for a college president, those represent troublesome cognitive lapses; others might conclude they mask evasion.

If you would like to know the details of my settlement agreement, or a similar one the college entered into with former WSC Dean of Extended Students Janell Larson, a self-described “assertive woman” who believes that this quality played a role in her own contract non-renewal, visit the WSC Human Resources office with a letter requesting a copy of those documents under authority of the Colorado Open Records Act. Western cannot legally refuse your request. I think it is important to be fully informed about how much the actions of a very few cost the many, both in dollars and in human currencies.

For more information on my case, you can follow these links:

Good luck to all of you in any efforts you make to improve the climate for women at Western. If in reading my story, you find yourself concluding that you have been mistreated at Western or anywhere else on the basis of your gender, visit the home page of the American Association of University Women Legal Advocacy Fund for hints on how to proceed. And feel free to contact me anytime (PaleoBon@aol.com). I know a number of people who can provide varying kinds of support.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Pitblado, Ph.D.