Lea Olver shares information with passerby about the actions SASHA is taking against Paul Stangl. Ella Banken//AS Review
By Hailey Murphy
CW: Sexual harassment
On Wednesday, Students Against Sexual Harassment and Assault (SASHA) protested Western’s lack of action around Paul Stangl, a Huxley professor found to have sexually harassed two students by the Equal Opportunity Office.
Three SASHA members displayed signs in Red Square reading “WWU, what are you doing about Paul Stangl?” and “Students deserve class alternatives” to spread the word about Stangl’s presence on campus.
Stangl was barred from teaching field courses until summer 2020 as a result of the EOO investigation. He also wasn’t permitted to teach any courses this past summer.
However, as a professor of urban planning and sustainable development, Stangl is largely involved with the urban planning major. According to multiple members of SASHA, there is no way to complete the urban planning program without taking a class with Stangl.
Stangl is the only professor teaching the program’s mandatory introductory course this fall and spring, according to ClassFinder. He’s also the only professor who teaches the transportation systems planning course and the history of planning course, which are both mandatory for the planning program, according to the program’s online brochure.
The demonstrators asked students to email faculty – Planning Program Director Nick Zaferatos, Chair of Environmental Studies Andrew Bach and Huxley College Dean Steven Hollenhorst – and request that alternatives be offered for all courses that Stangl teaches.
Kai Bjarke, an urban planning pre-major, said they stopped attending the introduction to planning course since learning about the harassment. They’ve since joined SASHA and have been learning class material through the textbook and powerpoints.
“There’s no other major that I’m interested in,” Bjarke said. “This is the only one, so it’s not like I’m just gonna take other classes, or switch [my] major, because this is why I came to Western. For this.”
Hannah Peters, who founded SASHA this fall, said she wants perpetrators on campus to be held accountable, particularly for the sake of student safety. She also wants Western to be more transparent with students when it comes to sexual assault and harassment.
“I would love to see [President Randhawa] … call it out as it actually is and to not use coded language to talk about these things,” Peters said. “Call it sexual assault, call it sexual harassment, call [Stangl’s] name out, and then revoke his tenure. Why does he get protected while the rest of us face uncertainty?”
Peters also hopes that, by spreading this information, students will learn to question the messages Western sends to its students.
“Western generally has a really good reputation and a really good safety rating online, and we just feel like that doesn’t actually accurately represent what’s happening here,” Peters said.
Another goal of SASHA is to spread the word about Stangl, as many are unaware of the harassment findings.
An aspiring Huxley student, who wished to remain anonymous, was unaware of the harassment until Wednesday’s demonstration. They said its upsetting the information isn’t more widespread.
“You go in and you automatically trust the professor,” the student said. “This person wants to help, they want to teach, they have our best interests in mind. And now I’m realizing that maybe that’s not the best way to approach things if they don’t tell you anything. Maybe you shouldn’t go into class expecting this person to be somebody you trust.”
Stangl invited two students to his hotel room late at night while on a school trip, according to the EOO report. He was visibly drunk when they arrived, and offered alcohol despite at least one student being underage.
The conversation turned emotional, according to the report, and Stangl requested physical contact by reaching his hand out. The students obliged because of the power dynamics and Stangl’s vulnerable state, they said.
At one point, Stangl said, “If I was 20 years younger, I would marry you,” and something along the lines of wanting to lick the students’ thighs, according to the report.
The EOO initially conducted an investigation after the incident was reported in July 2016, but they found his actions didn’t constitute harassment.
The student came forward again in March 2017, according to their EOO testimony, because they learned that Stangl was still teaching the field course where the harassment occurred.
After a second investigation, the EOO found that Stangl had harassed the students, and a punishment was sent to Stangl by Provost Brent Carbajal.
SASHA was formed this year to fight Western’s handling of sexual harassment and assault, Peters said.
In a Human Services 404 course last winter, Brett Coleman and his students started a participatory action research project looking into how Western handles sexual assault and harassment, Peters said, which she was involved in.
The project has been collecting data for three quarters now, Peters said, and focuses on students as the experts of the community. They’ve studied Western’s reporting process and the barriers in that process, as well as student’s attitudes towards sexual violence.
They also measured how students’ feeling of safety changed from their first year to their last year, Peters said. Of the students surveyed, all students of marginalized identity had decreased feelings of trust and safety with the administration.
“Except for white, straight men. Both faculty and students said they had no difference, nothing changed for them,” Peters said.
SASHA is a platform for students to organize and act on sexual assault and harassment, Peters said. It’s also a way to act on the data that students have been collecting.
“I know that it’s hard for academics and institutions to use morality as the basis for how they make decisions,” Peters said. “So we figured, if we used numbers and statistics, we can show them this is what’s wrong, and hopefully work toward alternatives. For them, they can take that with a little bit more validity.”
Update on 11/6: The Human Resources course referenced in this article is a Human Services course.