The climate in Florida has never been to my liking, but the climate at Florida Gulf Coast University has got to be even worse!
We have documented (click on the FGCU tag) what we thought were the only incidents of discrimination and harassment at the university. But apparently we missed some of what has been going on outside of the athletic department. But the recent suspension of an instructor in the criminal justice program at FGCU has brought to light incidents we had not heard of.
This most recent involved the sexual harassment* of students by the instructor, Jeffrie Jinian. The investigation into the students' complaints (which was impeded by Jinian's deletion of emails related to his propositions to students) has resulted in his suspension for the rest of the semester. But he will be back teaching in the fall, though no longer serve as the internship coordinator.
Other incidents of faculty behaving badly at FGCU include an adjunct German professor who was fired after sexually harassing a graduate student. A professor in the justice studies department was suspended after he fondled a mannequin and made inappropriate comments in class about investigating deaths. He's supposed to be appealing the suspension.
This article details all the cases (including the ones we have previously covered). Provost Ronald Toll said he is happy to no longer have any active gender discrimination or sexual harassment complaints. I bet!
* The internal investigation actually concluded that any one (of the seven) complaints on its own did not constitute sexual harassment but that in the aggregate they contributed to a hostile environment created by Jinian.
