UM’s Hoff defends committee Attacks on Dr. Allan’s character, qualifications ‘unwarranted’

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ORONO – Peter Hoff couldn’t take it any more.

The University of Maine president had remained behind the scenes during the recent scandal surrounding an alleged sexual assault involving two UMaine football players and their subsequent suspensions by a university committee.

After attorneys for students Stefan Gomes and Paris Minor publicly questioned the objectivity and character of UMaine Student Conduct Code Committee chairwoman Dr. Elizabeth Allan again this week, Hoff jumped to the defense of her and all involved in the UMaine student conduct process.

“Dr. Allan’s integrity and that of her colleagues on the [conduct code] panel is, in my view, above reproach,” Hoff said during a Friday morning press conference at UMaine’s new Buchanan Alumni House.

“Dr. Allan is a rising star on the faculty of this university,” Hoff said. “She has a very bright future and I will not allow her prospects to be tarnished by unwarranted attacks on her qualifications and her character.”

Minor and Gomes, both 21, were accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student June 10 at her Old Town apartment. The men claim the relationship was consensual.

The Old Town police investigated the allegation and forwarded the case to the Penobscot County District Attorney’s office, which has not yet filed criminal charges against them.

On Monday, a three-person UMaine appeal committee upheld the suspensions originally handed down by the conduct code committee.

Allan headed the five-person committee that heard the case Sept. 24 as part of UMaine’s judicial affairs process. She has been an assistant professor of educational leadership and higher education at UMaine since August 2000. Her academic background is extensive and varied.

Allan graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in psychology from Springfield College in 1986, earned a master’s degree in health education and promotion from Springfield in 1988, then received a Ph.D. in educational policy and leadership from Ohio State in 1999.

Allan had five years’ experience handling student judicial affairs at Ohio State and the University of New Hampshire. She has been an advocate for women’s issues and has done research into sexual assault policies, racism and rape prevention, hazing and ethnic diversity, among other issues.

Allan also is a board member of Rape Response Services of Penobscot and Piscataquis counties and is the advisor for a UMaine student organization called Men Can Stop Rape.

Attorneys for Minor and Gomes assert Allan’s work dealing with the rape may present a conflict of interest as pertains to her role as the head of the conduct code committee.

“We take issue with the objectivity of the committee chair,” Richardson said. “There are serious questions of bias in cases like this.

“Judges have to be impartial. She’s essentially a judge. She had an ethical obligation to tell us of her affiliation.”

Hoff said Allan’s background does not affect her ability to be fair and impartial.

“I find it odd that Dr. Allan has been challenged because of her expertise on sexual misconduct and women’s issues,” said Hoff, who referred to the depth and breadth of her work in many other areas.

“If academic discipline and background was the most important basis for selecting hearing officers, we could not have found a more qualified chair for the hearing committee,” he said.

Hoff pointed to characteristics such as honesty, intelligence, conscientiousness, empathy, understanding, and compassion as those UMaine considers when choosing people to serve on the student conduct code committee.

Richardson said his firm would have objected that anyone with a background such as Allan’s be seated on the committee. The firm requested in a Sept. 17 fax that UMaine reveal whether anyone on the panel “had personal experience with sexual assault or had worked in a facility or in an advocacy group for sexual assault victims.”

The university informed the attorneys that “challenges for bias may be made.”

It also said, “All parties have the right to challenge for cause any member of the Committee by submitting to a designated official a written memorandum stating the grounds for this challenge…”

The removal of members is within the authority and discretion of the chair, which was Allan, or another member of the committee if the chair is unable to exercise that function or is challenged for cause.

Although a copy of Allan’s resume listing myriad professional and personal affiliations was available on the UMaine Web site, the attorneys were not aware of it at the time and thus did not formally request that she be recused.

“We didn’t go to the Web site, acting on the assumption that someone with a bias would come forward,” Richardson said.

Tom Hallett, the Portland attorney representing the alleged victim in the assault, explained he had requested prior to the hearing that a committee member not be seated on the panel. His request was granted.

The university Friday afternoon received the final appeal on behalf of Gomes and Minor. It will be up to Hoff, or his designee, to consider such an appeal.

“My role and my responsibility is to retain an open mind, not prejudge the findings of any previous action in this case, but to be aware that we still may need to consider the correctness of the decision and the correctness of the process,” said Hoff, who is not expected to decide who will hear the appeal until next week.

This would be the first time a conduct code case reached the second appeal stage, said Hoff, who explained the UMaine Student Conduct Code process is up for regular review next year by the UMaine System Board of Trustees.

“The two-stage appeal process that our university has actually provides a greater margin of protection to the falsely accused than what exists at most American universities, which is only one level of appeal at most,” Hoff said.