In an earlier post with that title, UD described the tenured perv on the University of New Mexico’s Creative Writing faculty who poses with three of her graduate students on S/M sites, where Mistress Jade, as she’s known, warns that she’s a stern instructor who punishes unruly charges in naughty naughty ways.

The story broke a few months ago, but things haven’t yet calmed down at UNM. Lawyers advised the university that nothing actionable occurred, since everything seems to have been consensual; and the school president concluded that events didn’t justify any internal form of sanction either.

Some Creative Writing faculty disagree, and they remain angry.

Keep in mind that this is a teeny program — six tenured or tenure-track people, two full time non-tenure track, far as UD can see — so that a fight of this nature will be very destructive, and could lead to administrative paralysis. [I'm about to quote from the second story listed on this page of the Albuquerque Journal. They charge you to read it.]

The University of New Mexico has tapped an Albuquerque consulting firm to help mend the rift that developed in its English Department after a faculty member was caught posing in sexually suggestive photographs with a graduate student.

“The university is, first and foremost, a place where students, faculty and administrators alike constantly engage in learning. It’s now time for all of us to learn anew the lessons of repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation,” UNM President David Schmidly told English Department faculty members in a letter last month. [Schmidly, who specializes in presiding over way scummy university football teams, is currently dealing with a high-profile academic fraud scandal in UNM's athletics program. You can imagine how much time he has for dinky pervy creative writing.]

The company retained by UNM — Keystone International, Inc. — met with English Department faculty last week and even brought in former UNM Faculty Senate President Jacqueline Hood to help find middle ground between Associate Professor Lisa Chávez and her supporters and those who find her actions unpardonable. So far, Keystone has charged UNM $7,924, university spokeswoman Susan McKinsey said. [Sad sign when a university can't work something out among eight people without spending money on expensive whatevers.]

Some faculty members, however, are rebuffing the attempts to broker peace, noting the irony of the professor in a pedagogy class posing on a sadomasochism Web site with a graduate student whom she was supposed to be teaching how to teach.

Some are refusing to take part in the consultant’s “facilitated discussions.” [Oh dear. Facilitated discussions. The punishment meted out at these meetings has got to be far worse than anything Mistress Jade can think up.] Others — including a well known Native American professor — are contemplating leaving over UNM’s handling of the matter.

“How can I stay? I don’t think I can stay,” said Joy Harjo, a full professor in the university’s creative writing program and a well regarded Native American poet who left the University of California Los Angeles for the chance to work for her alma mater. She said she’s bothered there were no consequences and that the university was dismissive of those who expressed concern.

“Bottom line here is that there’s something of integrity being sacrificed, and that’s what is most disturbing to me,” she said.

Sharon Warner, who resigned her post as director of the nationally recognized creative writing program in protest of the university’s handling of the Chávez situation, said several faculty members, including her, are looking for employment elsewhere.

Warner said she attended Friday’s “facilitated discussion” and considered it unproductive.

Chávez, who has returned to the classroom after a sabbatical, did not respond to a request for an interview sent to her e-mail.

In his letter to English Department faculty, Schmidly said he took the allegations concerning Chávez seriously. He said he disapproved of her actions and that he warned her both orally and in writing that such behavior will not be tolerated. But he also said multiple reviews of the situation found that while Chávez used poor judgment, her actions didn’t rise to the level where she should be referred to the Faculty Senate Ethics and Advisor Committee for possible disciplinary action. [While UD thinks faculty should do more or less what they want on their own time, she agrees with Warner and Harjo that Lisa Chavez's behavior was grotesque enough -- and you don't hear her apologizing for it, or saying she won't do it again -- that UNM should have been able to impose some sanctions. UD remains perplexed as to why it does not.]

Chávez — known as Mistress Jade in Web postings — had been moonlighting for People Exchanging Power, a group based in Albuquerque that advertises conversation for cash. According to the UNM investigation, the three students who posed reported that their activities were consensual. One photo depicts a scantily clad Chávez helping to hold down her gagged student. An ad characterizes Mistress Jade as “a stern teacher ready to punish unruly students.” [See, sanctions make sense because the theme is academic, the gaggee is one of her students, and the photos were widely published. In fact, Mistress Jade and her students appear on a commercial website, with Mistress Jade making money by trading on her status as a professor. This shows a degenerate disregard for the ethos and reputation of her university.... Of course, the way UNM runs its bigtime sports programs demonstrates that the place in general doesn't give a shit about its reputation... But on the other hand, the NCAA is punishing this round of violations... ]

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ud thanks a friend at unm for sending the article