A records request of emails from WOUB leaders reveals that some students knew about sexual harassment incidents in the station's sports department.
At least 18 students working for WOUB Public Media emailed the names of the fellow employees they felt participated in sexual harassment in some way, and should not receive future leadership positions as a result, to Mark Brewer, WOUB chief operating officer, according to emails obtained through a public records request.
The names of the students, as well as the names of the senders of the emails, were redacted by the Office of Legal Affairs.
In March, The Post reported female sports reporters endured "sexism and harassment" at WOUB, where men allegedly promoted women based on appearance, and women were discussed as “sexual objects.”
WOUB’s professional staff held a mandatory meeting March 9 for student members of the sports staff, and 75 students attended. Brewer, Director and General Manager Tom Hodson, Editor-in-Chief Allison Hunter, Digital Content Editor Atish Baidya, News Assignment Editor Susan Tebben and Director Of Production Services and Student Development Michael Rodriguez also attended the meeting.
Before students left the meeting, Brewer required them to email him information about “offensive behavior, if any, of current student leaders and participants in the sports department," as well as recommend who should not be a future leader at WOUB, according to the emails.
Students were given the chance to address sexual harassment and other inappropriate activity at WOUB in their emails to Brewer. If a student did not submit an email, he or she would no longer be affiliated with WOUB, according to emails from Brewer and Hodson to Jessica Cook, assistant director for Civil Rights Compliance.
In addition to naming colleagues, at least seven students said they were aware of the situation to some extent.
“Myself for while I didn’t participate, I was well aware of the culture being developed around me,” one email said. “I heard it, I saw it, I read it, I did nothing about it.”
Another email sender said the sexism in the newsroom was “not difficult to pick up on.”
“There were people who make me feel unworthy, talentless and unimportant,” the email stated.
One student said he or she found out about the situation right before spring break.
“As far as I knew, the worst thing of this nature that occurred were occasions where, on car rides, both males and females were asked to name their top three students in WOUB who they found attractive,” the email said. “I tried to get this shut down in my cars because I felt it was creepy and a bit demeaning.”
In one of the emails between Brewer and colleagues, Brewer said he received 75 emails from students, and a few people sent him more than one.
“I was hoping to see a consensus around a group of students that obviously needed purged from WOUB — which has indeed happened,” Brewer said in one email.
He mentioned how he was not prepared for some of the stories people shared.
“It’s really disgusting and has certainly put me in a position to report,” Brewer said in the email.
On March 11, WOUB announced “changes in its student-run sports department.” The Bobcat Sports Showcase, a television show, and FaceOff, a radio program, were canceled.
Also on March 11, in a report sent by WOUB’s leadership on to Ohio University’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights Compliance, officials said student journalists in WOUB’s sports department perpetuated a culture that created “a hostile and/or threatening environment for women.” The report is being reviewed by the Office of Equity and Civil Rights Compliance, OU Spokesman Dan Pittman said, noting the university does not comment on matters under-review involving students.
That same day, students were put in three groups, according to the report.
- The first group, made up of 11 students, was “dismissed from WOUB immediately and for their remaining time at Ohio University.”
- The second group was six students who were “suspended from WOUB immediately. Permitted to reapply Fall ‘16. Not eligible for sports leadership roles.”
- The third group, made up of seven students, was “put on notice to improve professionalism.”
A Post staff member was fired from WOUB, but Post executive editors decided against taking action after learning about the staffer’s involvement and before his firing from WOUB.
In a similar incident earlier this year, a group of students took a van to Nashville to attend a sports journalism conference with travel paid for by the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. After a the trip, Justice Hill, a Scripps faculty member and former adviser of OU's chapter of Associated Press Sports Editors was informed of a conversation “of a sexually demeaning nature against female colleagues” that took place during the car ride. Four out of the 11 students in the van at the time worked for WOUB.
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“As a part of the APSE group that went to Nashville, I’m all too familiar now with these issues and why they needed to be addressed,” one email stated. “These situations are more embarrassing than anything because it showed us the true meaning of being professional and what should be tolerated on a human level and what isn’t.”
Before spring break, students and a faculty member in the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism informed professional management of WOUB about what happened on the APSE trip, according to an email Hodson and Brewer sent to Cook on March 11 that included details on what helped bring the situation to light.
During spring break, paid staff performed a preliminary investigation of the allegations. The investigation uncovered female reporters had been excluded from at least one radio program and less-experienced female reporters were given on-camera television opportunities over better-trained female reporters based on appearance.
“We learned that sexual talk by males in the newsroom after hours was so foul, vile and egregious that females felt uncomfortable,” the email said.
The email also expressed how they learned about a group text run by males in order to sexually discuss their female colleagues. In an email from a student to Brewer, he or she mentioned how male students would talk about a group message, but did not know what they were talking about.
At least 11 students said they were unaware of the situation and 15 of the emails to Brewer were completely redacted.
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