1978: Portland, Oregon public school teacher Gary Welander pleads guilty to charges that he sexually abused an underage girl.

1983: Western Oregon University hires Welander to teach in the school of education, unaware of his criminal record.

2002: The woman Welander pled guilty to abusing in 1983 and her mother write to the WOU administration informing the university of Welander's past and arguing that he is unfit to be employed as a professor.

2003: Members of the WOU faculty report to the administration their concerns about Welander's relationship with student Rosemary Garcia. No action is taken.

2004: Garcia accuses Welander of sexual harassment.

2004: While covering the case, the Oregon Statesman reports on Welander's criminal past as well as on the WOU faculty's unanswered complaints about Welander's past conduct. Oregon governor Ted Kulongowski orders a review of sexual harassment policies and consensual relationship policies at all seven of Oregon's public universities. WOU provost John Minahan removes Welander from his post as chair of the Teacher Education Division, having determined that "there was contact with the student that was unprofessional and unethical in terms of phone calls and gifts. ... There was a clear conflict of interest between his duties as (Teacher Education Division) chair and teacher and the romantic interests that we had good reason to believe existed."

Summer, 2004: Provost Minahan retires.

January, 2005: Garcia files a multi-million dollar lawsuit that names both Welander and the university. The suit alleges that while Welander was chairman of WOU's Teacher Education division, he offered professional guidance to Garcia "in exchange for entering into a sexual and emotional relationship with him"; the suit also alleges that when the charges were brought to the university's attention, it failed to act. Welander is suspended without pay. The university eventually pays Garcia $65,000 to settle out of court.

September, 2005: Minahan returns as interim president, hoping to help the university recover from the economic and reputational damage the Welander case has done to the school. Later this month, Welander will return to teaching--but he will be barred from the classroom. In response to faculty and student concern--and even outrage--about Welander's return, Minahan decides that Welander will teach his course online. "His contact with students is minimized," Minahan said. "I'm not even sure there is going to be any contact."

Apart from the obvious things, there's one thing wrong with the picture that may not be so obvious: unless there's more to the story than you describe, the university punished him (first by leave without pay and then by taking him out of the classroom) without stating formal charges, providing a hearing, or allowing him to respond to the charges and confront the evidence and witnesses against him.

If Welander actually did something wrong regarding Garcia, by all means fire him or take other appropriate action. First, though, the university needs to determine the facts in a fair way that provides due process. Even those accused of sexual harassment are entitled to that much.

According to the article, there was at least an investigation.

"WOU leaders have refused to reveal results of the school's investigation into the sexual-harassment complaint against Welander. They also have refused to publicly disclose his disciplinary records.

...

"But Minahan, who was WOU's provost when the harassment allegations surfaced in spring 2004, said Welander's relationship with Garcia clearly crossed ethical boundaries.

"'The evidence that I found in the early parts of the investigation showed that there was contact with the student that was unprofessional and unethical in terms of phone calls and gifts,' Minahan said in an interview Friday. 'There was a clear conflict of interest between his duties as (Teacher Education Division) chair and teacher and the romantic interests that we had good reason to believe existed.'"

It's not clear what that investigation entailed and whether Welander had the opportunity to defend himself in any formal way. The article does state that he says he was the subject of harrassment, not Garcia. It also says over and over that the other teachers are angry that he is coming back and don't understand why he is being allowed to.

And may I point out that once again the governor of the state had to get involved before the school would take care of business even to the extent that it has. If schools want to be micromanaged by state governments, this kind of thing is how they can bring that about.

What?!? Yes, what on earth is wrong with that picture!

I'm very concerned that someone can "teach" without any contact with sutdents. Even if it's e-mail contact, or telephonic only, you're doing a distance-learning student a great disservice by not providing an instructor with whom to make contact, refer questions, and initiate discussion.

Rather like distance learning of old -- read a book and take a test. If that's the case, why do they need Welander?

As I understood it:

1) Welander pled guilty to a crime nearly three decades ago, and has been punished as the judicial system saw fit.

2) The university hired him, to teach adult students.

3) He allegedly pestered a student with whom he (maybe) had a grading relationship, but doesn't seem to have touched her.

OK, I can believe that Welander is a distasteful guy. Maybe he should be fired. It's not obvious to me why all the furor is justified, let alone a "multi-million dollar lawsuit".

"1983: Western Oregon University hires Welander to teach in the school of education, unaware of his criminal record."

Query whether his employment application asked for disclosure of such things. That would be routine today, but in 1983 I don't know. If he lied, of course, he should've been fired as soon as they found out--and referred to law enforcement to beinvestigated for perjury or at least making false official statements--and the rest of this is all irrelevant to that.