Professor Tenured Despite Complaints of Verbal Abuse

Calling into question the actions of senior administrators at the Kennedy School of Government, Professor of Public Policy Gary R. Orren was granted tenure in 1988 even though support staff said they were subjected to ongoing verbal abuse, sources said recently.

The complaints against Orren included accusations that he screamed at staff members and made his assistants run personal errands and work on non-professional projects.

The complaints made to senior administrators led to the negotiation of a highly unusual personnel agreement.

As a result of the confidential deal, to which Orren voluntarily agreed, all the professor's future staff members must be warned about his prior abusive behavior before they begin work.

The deal also guarantees staff reassignment upon request with no questions asked, sources say.

The revelations about the circumstances surrounding Orren's tenure appointment in November of 1988 raise serious questions about the actions of administrators at the Kennedy School who dealt with his situation.

University Provost Albert Carnesale, who was academic dean of the Kennedy School at the time of the complaints, was the administrator whom sources say represented the school in the discussions.

And Kennedy School Dean Joseph S. Nye, who was then Dillon professor of international affairs and chair of the Center for Science and International Affairs, was a member of the tenure committee that eventually recommended that Orren be promoted to full professor.

Dillon Professor of Government emeritus Richard E. Neustadt, and Nelson Polsby, now at the University of California at Berkeley's Institute of Government, were also members of Orren's tenure committee.

Carnesale declined to comment on the "specific personnel matter" and referred process questions to the Office of Human Resources at the Kennedy School.

Nye could not be reached for comment, while Neustadt and Polsby were out of the country.

Complaints

According to Maura Barrios, who hired Orren's assistants at the Kennedy School during the late 1980s, four staff assistants who were subjected to Orren's behavior between 1986 and 1989 got together in 1989 and brought the issues to administrative attention.

A fifth woman, who had just been hired, later joined the four other staffers in filing a complaint.

Barrios, who organized the coalition of staff members, said that after the fifth secretary had to face Orren's abusive behavior, the other women decided they should take action.

A person in the negotiations of the personnel agreement says the numbers may have influenced Orren's support staff to eventually bring the complaint to fruition.

"Four staff members were all working in the Kennedy school and all of them had worked as a staff assistant for Gary Orren," the person says. "They got together and realized that they had very similar experiences. I think it was a powerful realization for all of them."

Barrios agrees that the number of assistants Orren's behavior affected influenced the eventual decision to file a complaint with the administration.

"After number five, we decided to take a different tack," Barrios says.

The person in negotiations of that agreement says those representing the staff members met with "the senior administration of the Kennedy School" to discuss possible courses of action, which included preventing Orren from hiring a staff to simply monitoring his behavior.

"At that time, our request was that there needed to be some kind of intervention," Barrios says. "This was a very painful experience for those women and me."

In a statement issued recently in response to questions from The Crimson, Orren says he recognized that his behavior toward staff was unacceptable and he took the complaints brought to administrators seriously.

"In a period from about six to 10 years ago, there were instances in which I lost my temper and was discourteous and rude to support staff," Orren wrote in a written statement. "There were complaints about this to the Kennedy School Administration. I took the complaints very seriously and acknowledged that my behavior was unacceptable."

The Agreement

The negotiations, which took place in May and June of 1989, led to the stipulation of detailed steps Orren is required to follow when hiring support staff, according to the person in negotiations.

The agreement had several provisions, including providing advance information or warning about problems that previous support staff had with Orren, guaranteeing reassignment without fear of job loss and monitoring Orren's behavior.

The person in negotiations says the advance warnings are "unusual" and that guaranteed employment is "not routine."

In his written statement, Orren says he has followed the terms of that agreement.

"In resolving these complaints, in 1990 it was agreed that I would inform future support staff in my office of the past incidents and give assurance that they would not be repeated," Orren wrote. "I have done so."

"I worked to correct the situations, and there have been no such complaints since then," he wrote.

An August, 1991, meeting, which a source said Carnesale attended, confirmed the that agreement was still in place.

Tenure

At least one colleague said the move to grant Orren tenure although staff assistants said they were having problems was alarming.

"There was a whole string of incidents when he would scream at secretaries," one of Orren's co-workers says. "This was before Gary had tenure. They gave him tenure anyway."

Orren's tenure was announced by the school in November, 1988, according to Steve Singer, a Kennedy School spokesperson.

Barrios said she believed the tenure committee was aware of staff complaints about Orren's behavior when they considered him for promotion.

"I remember, when he got tenure, feeling very, very--really it was a great injustice and that he didn't deserve it," the co-worker says.

Work Environment

The support staff say Orren's behavior made their work environment extremely difficult.

"I remember several of his secretaries feeling--I just remember they all disliked him," the co-worker says. "I remember one of his secretaries quit and somebody said he'd been acting weird for a couple of days. At one level it wasn't very descriptive, but on another level, when somebody said that, I knew what he was talking about."

The co-worker, who asked not to be named, also said the work environment was emotionally uncomfortable.

"I certainly remember that it made working there much less pleasant than it would otherwise have been," the co-worker says. "I remember one time having to help him with some kind of project and just feeling greasy and sleazy by the end."

"Somebody at the K-School once said he had the instincts of a bully," the co-worker says. "He really had a way of knowing who was vulnerable, who had to take it from him. It was designed to threaten me and it worked."

A former staff assistant who says she left because of Orren's behavior described the office environment as very unpleasant.

"I remember this feeling of dread all the time," she says. "He really expected--he made unreasonable personal demands."

Barrios says that she found the experience working with Orren, and reporting his behavior, difficult and painful.

"We suffered. We cried a lot," she says. "We felt scared a lot."

Incidents of Verbal Abuse

Although Orren describes his own behavior as "discourteous and rude," those on the receiving end use much stronger language when describing encounters with Orren.

"He called me at 7 a.m. on a Sunday and just screamed at me over the phone for two or three minutes, saying I had no standards, that I'd let him down," the co-worker recalls. "It was just this very berating, abusive phone call."

Barrios also uses the word abusive when describing Orren's behavior.

"There was abusive behavior toward people in less powerful positions," Barrios says. "Secretaries were a favorite target."

The former staff assistant, who described Orren as "very sexist, erratically moody, with not a whole lot of respect for women in general" says things were so bad that she had considered taking legal action.

"Later, I [was contacted about] sexual harassment charges," she says. "I know I said that I'd talk to people about it. I don't remember what happened to that."

However, the person involved in the negotiations says sexual harassment may not be the best way to characterize Orren's behavior, and it appears that no such charges were ever filed.

"Based on my recollection, I'm not certain the experiences the women described could be classified as sexual harassment," the person says. "It was shockingly inappropriate behavior [that] violated standards. It had a gender bias, but not explicit sexual content."

"The stories were about repeated episodes [of] shaking, red-faced yelling, standing too close, wildly gesturing," the person says.

But the co-worker says Orren's behavior was not based on gender.

"While I think all of his secretaries were women, I'm not sure it was a gender component," the co-worker says. "He could be just as nasty toward men."

However, the description offered of his behavior by the person in negotiations is accurate, he says.

"The one detail that wasn't the case with me was standing too close, but everything else...sounds exactly right," the co-worker says. "It was inappropriate behavior--lots of yelling."

Personal Errands

Verbal abuse was not the only unpleasant part of working for Orren, office workers say.

The former assistant says she was asked to perform duties unrelated to Orren's professional work: to "do very, very menial chores, run personal errands."

"That was not the way the job was advertised," she says.

The co-worker also recalls being asked by Orren to work on non-professional activities.

"He would get into these moods when he was very abrupt. He called me up late one day and demanded I do some kind of errand which was not for his research but for some kind of consulting he was doing," the co-worker says.

The co-worker recalls incidents of others receiving non-professional assignments as well.

"I remember one of his secretaries being hired with the expectations that she would be running programs and being asked to get him coffee, get him lunch," the co-worker says. "His son was in Little League and he wanted to send out a letter to all of the other kids on the team. I remember he asked his secretary to do it. I think he told his secretary to do it."

Orren, who did not respond to repeated requests for an interview, did not address the subject of assigning personal errands to support staff in his written statement.

Professional Work

Orren, an expert in media and politics and a public opinion analyst, is the associate director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

He has served as a political advisor in election campaigns and has authored and co-authored a number of books, including The Electronic Commonwealth: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Democratic Politics.

Orren teaches classes at the Kennedy School on political management, public opinion, politics and the press.Crimson File PhotoUniversity Provost Albert Carnesale

Barrios agrees that the number of assistants Orren's behavior affected influenced the eventual decision to file a complaint with the administration.

"After number five, we decided to take a different tack," Barrios says.

The person in negotiations of that agreement says those representing the staff members met with "the senior administration of the Kennedy School" to discuss possible courses of action, which included preventing Orren from hiring a staff to simply monitoring his behavior.

"At that time, our request was that there needed to be some kind of intervention," Barrios says. "This was a very painful experience for those women and me."

In a statement issued recently in response to questions from The Crimson, Orren says he recognized that his behavior toward staff was unacceptable and he took the complaints brought to administrators seriously.

"In a period from about six to 10 years ago, there were instances in which I lost my temper and was discourteous and rude to support staff," Orren wrote in a written statement. "There were complaints about this to the Kennedy School Administration. I took the complaints very seriously and acknowledged that my behavior was unacceptable."

The Agreement

The negotiations, which took place in May and June of 1989, led to the stipulation of detailed steps Orren is required to follow when hiring support staff, according to the person in negotiations.

The agreement had several provisions, including providing advance information or warning about problems that previous support staff had with Orren, guaranteeing reassignment without fear of job loss and monitoring Orren's behavior.

The person in negotiations says the advance warnings are "unusual" and that guaranteed employment is "not routine."

In his written statement, Orren says he has followed the terms of that agreement.

"In resolving these complaints, in 1990 it was agreed that I would inform future support staff in my office of the past incidents and give assurance that they would not be repeated," Orren wrote. "I have done so."

"I worked to correct the situations, and there have been no such complaints since then," he wrote.

An August, 1991, meeting, which a source said Carnesale attended, confirmed the that agreement was still in place.

Tenure

At least one colleague said the move to grant Orren tenure although staff assistants said they were having problems was alarming.

"There was a whole string of incidents when he would scream at secretaries," one of Orren's co-workers says. "This was before Gary had tenure. They gave him tenure anyway."

Orren's tenure was announced by the school in November, 1988, according to Steve Singer, a Kennedy School spokesperson.

Barrios said she believed the tenure committee was aware of staff complaints about Orren's behavior when they considered him for promotion.

"I remember, when he got tenure, feeling very, very--really it was a great injustice and that he didn't deserve it," the co-worker says.

Work Environment

The support staff say Orren's behavior made their work environment extremely difficult.

"I remember several of his secretaries feeling--I just remember they all disliked him," the co-worker says. "I remember one of his secretaries quit and somebody said he'd been acting weird for a couple of days. At one level it wasn't very descriptive, but on another level, when somebody said that, I knew what he was talking about."

The co-worker, who asked not to be named, also said the work environment was emotionally uncomfortable.

"I certainly remember that it made working there much less pleasant than it would otherwise have been," the co-worker says. "I remember one time having to help him with some kind of project and just feeling greasy and sleazy by the end."

"Somebody at the K-School once said he had the instincts of a bully," the co-worker says. "He really had a way of knowing who was vulnerable, who had to take it from him. It was designed to threaten me and it worked."

A former staff assistant who says she left because of Orren's behavior described the office environment as very unpleasant.

"I remember this feeling of dread all the time," she says. "He really expected--he made unreasonable personal demands."

Barrios says that she found the experience working with Orren, and reporting his behavior, difficult and painful.

"We suffered. We cried a lot," she says. "We felt scared a lot."

Incidents of Verbal Abuse

Although Orren describes his own behavior as "discourteous and rude," those on the receiving end use much stronger language when describing encounters with Orren.

"He called me at 7 a.m. on a Sunday and just screamed at me over the phone for two or three minutes, saying I had no standards, that I'd let him down," the co-worker recalls. "It was just this very berating, abusive phone call."

Barrios also uses the word abusive when describing Orren's behavior.

"There was abusive behavior toward people in less powerful positions," Barrios says. "Secretaries were a favorite target."

The former staff assistant, who described Orren as "very sexist, erratically moody, with not a whole lot of respect for women in general" says things were so bad that she had considered taking legal action.

"Later, I [was contacted about] sexual harassment charges," she says. "I know I said that I'd talk to people about it. I don't remember what happened to that."

However, the person involved in the negotiations says sexual harassment may not be the best way to characterize Orren's behavior, and it appears that no such charges were ever filed.

"Based on my recollection, I'm not certain the experiences the women described could be classified as sexual harassment," the person says. "It was shockingly inappropriate behavior [that] violated standards. It had a gender bias, but not explicit sexual content."

"The stories were about repeated episodes [of] shaking, red-faced yelling, standing too close, wildly gesturing," the person says.

But the co-worker says Orren's behavior was not based on gender.

"While I think all of his secretaries were women, I'm not sure it was a gender component," the co-worker says. "He could be just as nasty toward men."

However, the description offered of his behavior by the person in negotiations is accurate, he says.

"The one detail that wasn't the case with me was standing too close, but everything else...sounds exactly right," the co-worker says. "It was inappropriate behavior--lots of yelling."

Personal Errands

Verbal abuse was not the only unpleasant part of working for Orren, office workers say.

The former assistant says she was asked to perform duties unrelated to Orren's professional work: to "do very, very menial chores, run personal errands."

"That was not the way the job was advertised," she says.

The co-worker also recalls being asked by Orren to work on non-professional activities.

"He would get into these moods when he was very abrupt. He called me up late one day and demanded I do some kind of errand which was not for his research but for some kind of consulting he was doing," the co-worker says.

The co-worker recalls incidents of others receiving non-professional assignments as well.

"I remember one of his secretaries being hired with the expectations that she would be running programs and being asked to get him coffee, get him lunch," the co-worker says. "His son was in Little League and he wanted to send out a letter to all of the other kids on the team. I remember he asked his secretary to do it. I think he told his secretary to do it."

Orren, who did not respond to repeated requests for an interview, did not address the subject of assigning personal errands to support staff in his written statement.

Professional Work

Orren, an expert in media and politics and a public opinion analyst, is the associate director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

He has served as a political advisor in election campaigns and has authored and co-authored a number of books, including The Electronic Commonwealth: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Democratic Politics.

Orren teaches classes at the Kennedy School on political management, public opinion, politics and the press.Crimson File PhotoUniversity Provost Albert Carnesale