Ex-Dartmouth Professor Loses Appeal Of Conduct Violation

By Jordan Cuddemi

Valley News Staff Writer

Published: 11-20-2018 12:11 AM

Hanover — A retired Dartmouth College professor who jokingly called out “ladies’ lingerie” in an elevator when asked what floor he wanted to be let out on has lost his appeal with the International Studies Association, which found he violated its code of conduct and should apologize to a female professor who was offended by the remark.

Ned Lebow, an emeritus professor of government, appealed to the ISA’s executive committee in mid-May after Simona Sharoni, a professor of women’s and gender studies at Merrimack College, filed a formal complaint shortly after the April 5 incident, which she interpreted as harassment.

The two academics were attending an ISA-hosted conference in San Francisco when they shared the elevator.

The ISA sided with Sharoni, saying Lebow violated a clause in the organization’s code of conduct against “unwanted conduct affecting the dignity of people or individuals” and demanded he submit an “unequivocal apology.”

The 76-year-old Lebow now is a professor at King’s College in London but still has an office and home in Etna.

Lebow emailed Sharoni after he found out about the complaint to try and resolve the dispute informally, and his statements in the email amounted to an apology, Lebow said in a telephone interview on Monday from London. Sharoni, however, called the email unwelcome and both “offensive and threatening in tone.”

In rejecting the appeal in a letter dated Nov. 13, the ISA, through attorney Christopher Brigham, said Lebow must issue an apology or the committee will issue “a formal, private letter of reprimand to him on behalf of ISA.”

Just what consequences would result from such a reprimand isn’t clear. Messages left for Brigham and ISA Executive Director Mark Boyer weren’t immediately returned.

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Lebow requested the elevator be stopped at the “ladies’ lingerie” level when someone — he says it was a man, but Sharoni contends it was her — asked fellow riders what floors they were bound for. Lebow said the comment was “a joke” that alluded to an era when elevators in department stores were operated by an attendant and that there still are contemporary references to the phrase “ladies’ lingerie,” according to his appeal filed on May 12 and shared with the Valley News.

He said he made the statement to relieve tension in a crowded elevator and that there is nothing “inherently offensive” in the phrase. He also questioned who determines what is offensive and suggested the executive committee didn’t follow its own procedures, the appeal said.

“Many remarks have relatively transparent meanings. Cases in point are perhaps use of the ‘N-word,’ reference to women as ‘dumb b----es,’ or obvious slurs of handicapped persons. My remark, by contrast, is open to many interpretations, most of them benign. Who knows, I might have been a transvestite out to shop for myself. There is nothing inherently offensive in ‘ladies lingerie,’ ” he wrote in his appeal.

In the response sent to Lebow on Nov. 13, the ISA, through Brigham, said the executive committee determined that Lebow’s appeal had no merit for two reasons.

“There were no procedural irregularities in adjudicating the claims against professor Lebow and because it was not manifestly unreasonable to find that professor Lebow’s conduct violated the ISA code or to require that professor Lebow unequivocally apologize to professor Sharoni,” Brigham wrote.

The ISA’s governing council backed up the executive committee’s position, the letter said.

In an exhibit attached to that letter, ISA President Patrick James wrote a three-page memo on Oct. 15 laying out the ISA’s position.

James wrote that the executive committee took the start of his letter as “sincere and at face value” and that some members knew what Lebow meant when he said “ladies’ lingerie” — it was a reference to an “old trope.”

“That said, one has to consider how someone who, because of age or culture is unfamiliar with that trope, would have interpreted your comment,” James wrote. “Without that anchor, it is difficult to imagine that your comment could have been interpreted in an inoffensive way. Thus, a violation of the code of conduct did occur.”

Lebow went public with the story, and Sharoni, who previously described herself as a “survivor of sexual harassment in the academy,” has since received backlash.

Sharoni on Monday referred a Valley News reporter to comments she made to The Chronicle of Higher Education, which reported the ruling last week.

She told The Chronicle she didn’t think the matter should have been resolved informally.

“I hope that the fact that it took ISA six months to decide on the appeal won’t deter others from using the association’s code of conduct when they’re confronted with unprofessional and inappropriate behavior,” she added.

On Monday, Lebow said the executive committee doesn’t want him to apologize — “they want me to capitulate.”

He said he has heard that “a large number of (ISA) members” are unhappy with how the executive committee has handled the situation and that the situation may spur change.

“What I hope is the governing council says something that makes the ISA reverse their censure of me and they write by-laws that a victim, or a so-called victim, can no longer define ... what is offense,” he said.

Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.

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