Complaint against 4th Linfield trustee alleges inappropriate touching, comment
Updated May 06, 2021;
Posted May 06, 2021
The encounter on May 3, 2019, left the woman feeling uncomfortable, she said. She didn’t go to university officials at the time but later wrote down the details in a letter that was presented to university leaders in February 2020. Photo by Daniel Hurst, courtesy of Linfield UniversityLC-
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In the latest harassment allegation naming a Linfield University trustee, a 2019 graduate said she was at a senior dinner when the trustee asked why a group of “beautiful young women” students were all by themselves and then hugged, squeezed and winked at her as she prepared to leave.
Readers respond: Linfield could endanger itself
Today 6:30 AM
I am extremely disappointed with Linfield University President Miles K. Davis and its Board of Trustees for the peremptory firing of Professor Daniel Pollack-Pelzner (“Linfield University president defends firing of tenured professor, says he has no plans to resign,” April 30). As a Linfield alumnus (B.A. ’62) and a retired faculty member and administrator at three universities, I am fully aware of how shortsighted and contrary to all the principles of academic freedom this decision was. Moreover, as a member of several university accreditation examination committees, I can predict that this action could jeopardize Linfield’s accreditation.
Daniel Pollack-Pelzner
The case of Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a noted Shakespearean scholar and, until recently, the Ronni Lacroute Chair in Shakespeare Studies at Linfield University, has quickly drawn attention to how a university administration and its Board of Trustees can feel entitled to bypass due process and substitute for it corporate protocols that even as such seem ethically problematic. Pollack-Pelzner, who has been a sharp critic of Linfield’s responses to sexual harassment and who has raised serious charges of anti-Semitism, has been fired for being “insubordinate.”
As reported in
The Oregonian, Pollack-Pelzner is known as being “a public advocate for students and faculty who had complained about alleged sexual abuse by board trustees.” He has also publicly reported instances of anti-Semitic statements by Linfield president Miles Davis.
No Confidence Vote and Planned Faculty Trustee Changes at Linfield
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Linfield University’s arts and sciences faculty voted no confidence in President Miles Davis and David Baca, chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, this week, 59 to 11. The resolution on which the vote was based calls for the leaders’ resignations, referencing the Linfield board’s ongoing sexual harassment and anti-Semitism scandal. The “words and actions of President Miles Davis and Chair David Baca have created an intimidating and hostile work environment, harmed members of the Linfield community, and damaged Linfield’s reputation,” the resolution says. “Attempts to work collaboratively, constructively, and proactively” with Davis and Baca “to address issues of concern have been met with censorship, punishment, secrecy and defamation.”