Tricky situation – too risky?

[AJ_Katz]

A junior faculty member in my department was contacted by someone who separated from a university many states away from us and is interested in becoming affiliated with our department.  It was curious to see this kind of thing happening by someone who seemed to be at the top of their career.  Their former department chair was someone I knew, so I gave them a call and they told me that there were allegations of sexual misconduct involved and related to female students in the lab.  I see now that there is a lawsuit that was filed by this individual against members at that institution as well.  This discovery was made in the early part of this year and I just received an email from my junior faculty member saying that the person has continued to have strong interest in a non-paid position in which they can help this junior faculty member build their program, which somewhat different as it involves fundraising and institutional investment.  My concern is that there is inherent risk in taking on this person as an affiliate with our department --- what happens if there is an incident here and I had knowledge of this risk? --- but is this discrimination since all of this information is hearsay? 

I feel like this is something I should discuss with the Dean to get his approval before proceeding.  I also wonder if bringing him on as an affiliate should come only after I meet with this person and discuss professional conduct expectations for all employees. 

What do you think?  What should I do?

[spork]

Why are you even in the business of conferring the official imprimatur of your university to random people?

The clear answer is "no."

[Puget]

I would not touch this with a ten foot pole. This is the sort of thing that would give your institutional counsel heart palpitations. I'm sort of shocked you would even consider this.

[sinenomine]

Another vote for trust your gut and stay away.

[Ruralguy]

Stay away.

If any underling or the offending person want to make some sort of weird stink of it, explain to the Dean, and the Dean will take the responsibility for making it go away (can't really imagine that he or she would not do exactly that).

[Parasaurolophus]

A few very prominent philosophers who fell to such allegations ten or so years ago continue to gripe about not being hired despite their stature in the field. But who would want to hire them after all that (in these cases, there isn't even any doubt about guilt)?

I dunno what HR would say about using outside information, but since you're not even running a search, I don't imagine they'd have much to say. Even if they did, it would probably be better for everyone to just turn this person away and take the subsequent lumps, if any.

[ciao_yall]

A junior faculty member in my department was contacted by someone who separated from a university many states away from us and is interested in becoming affiliated with our department.  It was curious to see this kind of thing happening by someone who seemed to be at the top of their career.  Their former department chair was someone I knew, so I gave them a call and they told me that there were allegations of sexual misconduct involved and related to female students in the lab.  I see now that there is a lawsuit that was filed by this individual against members at that institution as well.  This discovery was made in the early part of this year and I just received an email from my junior faculty member saying that the person has continued to have strong interest in a non-paid position in which they can help this junior faculty member build their program, which somewhat different as it involves fundraising and institutional investment.  My concern is that there is inherent risk in taking on this person as an affiliate with our department --- what happens if there is an incident here and I had knowledge of this risk? --- but is this discrimination since all of this information is hearsay? 

I feel like this is something I should discuss with the Dean to get his approval before proceeding.  I also wonder if bringing him on as an affiliate should come only after I meet with this person and discuss professional conduct expectations for all employees. 

What do you think?  What should I do?

Non-paid? This will not mean "free" and very quickly. Never that simple.

Guy is trying to make it look like he wasn't fired on his resume.

[jerseyjay]

Let's ignore the elephant in the room for a moment--i.e., the allegations of sexual misconduct--and this still smells funny.

A senior figure in the field reaches out to a junior faculty member elsewhere and wants to "becom[e] affiliated" to another department for free. Is such "affiliation" normal? Could I write to the history department at Harvard and offer to become affiliated for free? And even if I could, it would seem that this would be best done via the chair, not a junior faculty member.

I could see applying to be an adjunct professor somewhere. I could see a retired faculty member who moved somewhere wanting to be able to use the library at the school. (In fact, I have finagled library privileges at several research universities near where I have lived--but I would never claim "affiliation" with the school.) But otherwise this is just weird.

If you add on the allegations, it seems either desperate and/or sinister.   

So, to sum of, I would steer as far away from this as possible.

[Parasaurolophus]

A senior figure in the field reaches out to a junior faculty member elsewhere and wants to "becom[e] affiliated" to another department for free.

FWIW, I assume that person was just "in-network".

[fizzycist]

What does affiliated mean in this case? A soft money research faculty academic title? Or something like visiting scientist? In either case I would hope you already have some sort of screening process in place and can use that as the vehicle to stay the fuck away from this mess.

[Sea_Ice]

Full agreement with "this stinks", etc.  Chock full of red flags, all screaming NOooooooooo!

[the_geneticist]

The request is odd enough that I image the administration will decline even without the, ah, complicated backstory.

I would backpedal from this as fast as possible.  Not your dumpster, not your fire.

[Ruralguy]

The only potential problem I see is that if  your university and especially your department do this frequently, then I can see it being challenged a bit if you just tell this guy to go away without considering it. But my understanding is that such relationships  rarely involve much formality, so, not the sort of thing that runs the risk of grievances or law suits.  In any case, starting off with doing nothing is probably the best approach. 

[Sea_Ice]

It might not be relevant, but how does the junior faculty member feel about this?

If the answer is flattered, is s/he really thinking that this will be a great career move, or is s/he just naive?  If any of this, then a frank discussion of all facets of the issue seems in order.

If the answer is pressured, it seems that you need to help put a stop to the interloper.

[poiuy]

I had typed up a post here but it vanished?

To repeat: @AJ_Katz, what is your role in this? Are you a mentor to the junior faculty? Do you have any role in inviting this dubious scholar to affiliate with your institution?

If you are a mentor, you could advise the junior faculty to be cautious, without revealing what you learned from an informal conversation with your former colleague.

If you play any formal role in the process of affiliating this other scholar, then you can take your concerns to the Chair and/or Dean. In their place I would be having a chat with University Counsel on the issues.

If you don't have any formal role here then stay away.