University of Idaho President Chuck Staben and Provost John Wiencek attended Tuesday’s faculty senate meeting to discuss the Jan. 30 Vandal Alert alerting students, staff and faculty to call 911 if professor Denise Bennett was seen.
Staben did not attend the previous 18 meetings, making the meeting on Tuesday his first of the academic year.
Bennett was placed on administrative leave two weeks ago after exhibiting unprofessional conduct toward Sean Quinlan, dean of College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences and other employees, according to the terms and conditions of her leave, which Bennett shared via a profanity-laden livestream last Tuesday.
Wiencek said he and Staben met with Journalism and Mass Media staff Tuesday morning to address challenges following the fallout.
Staben and Weincek then fielded questions regarding the ethics and processes behind the issuing of the alert.
According to Staben, information gathered during both the night before the Vandal Alert was released and the morning of, led to heightened concern for the safety of students, and ultimately the decision to send out the Vandal Alert Wednesday morning. The university’s standing threat assessment team met at 9 a.m. Wednesday to assemble another team which worked to address security concerns at a second meeting, Staben said.
When asked by faculty senator Michelle Wiest if the same Vandal Alert would be issued given a similar situation, Staben said the information which was released in the case of Denise Bennett was relevant, and if given the same specific instance again, the same choice would be made. Staben also noted that the amount of detail in the alert, specifically the naming of methamphetamine, was extremely unusual for a Vandal Alert.
The full alert reads: “Denise Bennett has been barred from Moscow Campus. Recent admittance to police of meth use and access to firearms. If seen on campus, call 911.”
Faculty senator Penny Morgan questioned Staben regarding the timing of the Vandal Alert which was sent out around 11 a.m. Wednesday, just an hour before a student-arranged protest was scheduled to start. Staben denied accusations that the alert was sent out in order to squash the protest and reiterated that the alert was sent out with only safety of students, staff and faculty in mind.
Staben apologized for the lack of the follow-up Vandal Alert. Staben said there should have been an all-clear follow-up and more detailed explanation closer to the time of the first alert, rather than Thursday when an email was sent to students, faculty and staff.
Director of UI’s women’s, gender and sexuality program Leontina Hormel, who was sitting in for faculty senator Joseph De Angelis, also expressed outrage for the both the timing and the wording of the Vandal Alert.
“For me it’s really a big leap of faith for me to believe that the task force came to this decision when the police department itself has not indicated that there was any active crisis going on that we needed to follow up on as a campus,” Hormel said.
When a faculty senator asked if the protected personnel details will be released by the university when all legal conflicts are resolved, Staben said, “I doubt that you will ever be able to get what you would say are the full details.”
When asked about the university’s policy on profanity, Staben said to his knowledge, there is no university policy against the use of profanity and stated profanity was not a main concern in this case. Staben declined to comment further on the reasoning behind Bennett’s leave.
“To be clear it’s not about foul language, it’s about behaviors,” Wiencek said.
Staben said the detail used in the Vandal Alert on Wednesday, specifically the naming of the substance methamphetamine, was used in order to show the credibility of a potential security concern.
Hormel remained in her position.
“I don’t know what meth had to do with any of this other than it labeling my colleague in a very severe way that it would be very hard for her to be able to return to work and be treated with respect if that would have been an option,” Hormel said. “At the time that this Vandal Alert was out that she had plenty of colleagues that could have contacted her to find out her whereabouts. This wasn’t an active shooter.”
Richard Seamon, a professor of law and faculty senator, said he was appreciative of the small amount of information the Vandal Alert used and thought it was appropriate for the given situation. He also expressed general support for the administration’s actions for this situation.
David Lee-Painter, a representative of JAMM for the faculty senate, asked that if a similar situation occurs in the future, that administrators announce a scheduled time to address faculty concerns almost immediately if a conflict arises. Staben replied he is open to more opportunities to have dialogue.
Ryan Benson, a former student of Bennett’s and founder of the Reinstate Denise group, echoed this statement. Benson said he would have liked the administration to have sent a follow-up message and addressed concerns earlier. Benson said it was unacceptable for the university to wait until Thursday to send a follow-up message to the Vandal Alert.
Elizabeth Marshall can be reached atarg-uidaho.edu or on Twitter @EJMarshall_
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article contained a misquotation.
Jerry Finnegan
"This was not an active shooter"? Someone should explain to Ms. Hormel that Sueng-Hui Cho was not an active shooter either until he pulled the trigger the first time. The safety of students and faculty trumps the fact that this was a personal friend and colleague.