For almost a year, Paul Barrows has been near the forefront of a tense political relationship between the University of Wisconsin and the state Legislature. His case, in many ways, has symbolized the university's inability — perceived or actual — to dismiss an unwanted employee. April 14, the UW Academic Staff Appeals Committee deemed disciplinary action taken against Barrows unfounded, and a final ruling on the committee's recommendation is due from Provost Patrick Farrell by June 5. Recently, Barrows sat down with The Badger Herald to discuss the case, which for him, he said, has been "pure hell." This is the second of a three-part series.

He was the highest-ranking African-American employee on campus, and because of that, the downfall of Paul Barrows comes with a whole slew of additional issues.

While some inside the university say that, if anything, his race actually played to his advantage, Barrows said months of character assassination and public humiliation were the result of racism from some of Bascom Hall's highest administrative positions.

Specifically, Barrows said the color of his skin influenced the decision-making of Kathy Poi, executive director of University Health Services, and he directly characterized both Chancellor John Wiley and former Dean of Students Luoluo Hong as racists.

Hong, now serving as Dean of Student Affairs at Arizona State University's West Campus, declined comment when contacted via e-mail, and UW Communications declined comment on Wiley's behalf.

Poi, who, according to Barrows, expressed to Wiley her displeasure for the former UW vice chancellor for student affairs, insisted she was not at all involved with the chancellor's decision to discipline Barrows.

"I have never had a conversation with John Wiley about Dr. Barrows despite what [Barrows] has said," Poi said in a phone interview Wednesday. "I had absolutely no involvement in any of the decisions that were made around Dr. Barrows."

Hong

Looking back at the circumstances surrounding Barrows' initial departure from campus, it appears Hong may have served as the most immediate trigger, sexual harassment allegations aside.

Since Wiley's now-infamous Nov. 4 announcement, it has been revealed Hong sent the chancellor a scathing memo attacking Barrows' integrity just three days prior. It is a memo, Barrows feels, that was racist in nature.

"She issues all kinds of racist stereotypes," Barrows said. "'Mac Daddy,' … which means I'm a pimp, and some of these other more salacious terms that I don't even want to repeat."

Additionally, he said, the memo included "all kinds" of unfounded allegations, some of which seem to have been debunked by the Academic Staff Appeals Committee's April 14 ruling in his favor.

"She changed the nature of that consensual relationship to calling me a date rapist, a sexual predator, and all these other crazy, nasty things," Barrows said. "And said that I couldn't deal with her as an Asian, implying that I'm a racist, [and that] I couldn't deal with her as a woman, implying that I'm a sexist, and I didn't even know about the memo at the time."

Wiley

But it was that memo that led to his dismissal and set the months of controversy and criticism on track.

According to Barrows, Wiley apparently believed Hong but was "too embarrassed" to show the memo to him or anybody else, and therefore hid it for eight months.

The eventual release of the memo, Barrows believes, coincided with an effort from Wiley to dissuade attacks from Republican legislators. According to Barrows, Republicans were looking for reason to attack the university in an attempt to justify continued cuts to the university's budget.

"That's where race comes into the equation in terms of all of this," he said. "He fed, and profited from, and fed off of the racism in the media, the racism — there was some racism in terms of how some of those Republicans came after me; I'm no dummy, I'm not naíve — he fed it with his press releases and with his interviews and he used it to pound me into the ground."

One of those Republican legislators Barrows believes Wiley was appealing to, Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, offered a rare defense of the chancellor in this case, objecting to Barrows' classifications of racism in Bascom Hall and the Capitol alike.

"Give me a break," Suder said. "I didn't even know the man was black until well into the scandal, so you know … we've heard that story before."

Suder, in fact, said Barrows benefited from his race in a diversity-conscious university, and speculated he may even have been handled with "kid gloves" because he was the highest-ranking black administrator.

Still, Barrows continues to believe Wiley betrayed his trust and their friendship, and when asked if Wiley should have been removed from his job for the way he handled the situation, left little doubt of where he stands.

"I have lost confidence in John Wiley," Barrows said.

Wiley, as well as Hong, did not appear at his university appeals hearing two weeks ago, despite their close involvement in the case. It was an absence Barrows described as "really disappointing."

After the appeals hearing he said his quest for justice would not end until he can confront Wiley and Hong, against both of whom he has civil lawsuits pending.

Poi

Barrows' accusations against Poi are inherently tied to the case of Scott Spear, former director of clinical services at UHS.

When Barrows looks back at his saga, and juxtaposes that with how Poi and others handled similar sexual harassment allegations against Spear, who is white, the double standard is clear to him, and it's not one in which, as Suder suggests, the black guy was treated with "kid gloves."

After an internal investigation, the university eventually cleared charges against Spear, the first cousin of former UW Provost Peter Spear, and allowed him to return to his position at the same salary of $167,000. This February, however, Spear stepped down from his position for a lower-ranking one, but again, the university allowed him to keep the same salary.

Barrows, meanwhile, made $191,794 in his position as vice chancellor, but now makes $72,881, in a position he says is two ranks below the one he accepted when he first came to UW in 1989.

All of this is tangential to Poi's role, however. According to Barrows, he was contacted by former Medical School Dean Phil Farrell in October 2004, who was distressed by Poi's handling of the Spear investigation. Barrows said Farrell told him Poi was sitting on four sexual harassment complaints, "almost to the point where she's covering it up."

Additionally, Barrows said he was "outraged" that one of his senior-most directors had not even bothered to inform him of the complaints.

As of press time, Farrell did not return a phone call seeking comment.

It is with this background that Barrows said Wiley told him Poi gave him a vote of no confidence less than a month later.

"The duplicity there is clear on its face," Barrows said, noting Poi told Wiley she was outraged about a consensual relationship with a 40-year old part-time student.

"But yet she's got her deputy, who runs the entire clinical operation, looking at naked women, doing tests and everything on them everyday, who's got four sexual harassment allegations against him, and so, yeah, that smacked of racism. It's duplicity, and what is racism? It's treating people differently."

Poi, however, rejects Barrows' story that she told Wiley she was outraged by his relationship, and categorically denies having any involvement at all with Barrows being placed on leave.

"I dealt with Dr. Spear as his supervisor according to the rules of the university and the way that I was recommended that I deal with it," Poi said. "I did not deal with Dr. Barrows. That was not my responsibility."

Affirmative action complaint

Already angry about the entire process dating back to November 2004, in part because of what he sees as Wiley's continued failure to recuse himself from the process, Barrows also said he is upset with the track his affirmative action complaint has taken.

In light of the "dual treatment" he feels he received in comparison with other UW employees, most notably Spear, Barrows filed an affirmative action complaint with the Equity & Diversity Resource Center.

Because Vice Chancellor of Legal Affairs Melany Newby, who serves as John Wiley's attorney, would have overseen that process, Barrows said the process was correctly transferred to the UW System, which oversees the Madison campus.

After meeting with Ron Yates, UW System Director of Internal Auditing last week, Barrows said he was again infuriated to find out the report will come back to UW-Madison and land on Wiley's desk. And despite the high level of publicity associated with his case, Barrows said he does not trust Wiley to make the correct decision.

"Blatant conflict of interest," he said. "This absolutely makes no sense to me."

Campus climate

Aside from his own misfortunes over the past year and a half, Barrows said he shares the same concerns for the campus climate in general and for students and employees of color in particular.

"People are outraged, especially people of color are outraged at how I've been treated and really feel that if they can do that to the highest ranking African-American person on campus, then people are scared," Barrows said. "People are hunkered-down and watching their backs."

Coinciding with Barrows' dismissal from campus in November 2004, Wiley dismantled the very student affairs division Barrows said he worked so hard to build up.

Until that date, he said he was the point person for diversity at UW, and declared that any of the diversity programs and improvements on campus in the past 17 years had his imprint "all over it."

"Talk to people on campus, if they'll talk to you," Barrows said. "Most people won't even talk to you; everybody's scared. If you look at the community, the university's reputation in the broader Madison community, especially when it comes to people of color, is at an all-time low."