Monton Resigns from Colorado
Brad Monton will resign from his position as associate professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado, effective June 1st, 2015. In exchange, the university will pay him an additional $120,000 and halt its investigation into him for possible violations of its policies regarding amorous relationships with students. Monton is currently on paid leave, and will not teach next semester, either.
From the Daily Camera article about the story:
CU’s policy requires individuals to disclose romantic relationships in which one person supervises the other….
While the relationships themselves are permitted, the individual with “evaluative authority” is required by CU to recuse him or herself from supervising or grading the other party, according to the policy.
CU administrators declined to provide more detail about the accusations against Monton, citing confidentiality rules around personnel matters.
“CU made a business decision and it was in the best interest of both parties to reach this agreement,” DiStefano said in a statement. “Under the leadership of department chair Andy Cowell, the philosophy department has made great strides over the past year to improve its climate and culture. We plan to keep moving in that direction.”
Monton declined an interview from the Daily Camera, but did forward them an email in which he writes:
As you may have gathered, I’ve been unhappy with the administration’s recent treatment of me and others in the philosophy department… But I’m not interested (here or anywhere) in dwelling on the past; the good news is that the administration and I have reached a settlement agreement that will enable me to pursue other interests.
The settlement agreement can be viewed here.
A much-deserved victory for our Boulder colleagues working very hard trying to improve the situation there. An encouraging sign for the battles yet to be fought.
From the Daily Camera article: “In his email, he told colleagues he plans to pursue a career in the oil and gas industry.” What’s that about?
The real frustrating thing about this is that we are not going to get any official account of what did or did not happen, no recognition of wrong-doing, etc. I think a clear picture of the events and actions that got our department into this mess — one not filtered through the rumor mill– would be a good thing to have going forward. But it seems that is not to be.
Spencer, on the plus side we get some sort of closure and current and new students at Boulder will be able to avoid any risk, merely perceived or otherwise. I agree that it’s not an ideal scenario, but I think we can cheer on the university for its success, however limited.
Why think this is a “much-deserved victory for our Boulder colleagues”? It seems no one knows very much about the accusations against Monton, much less whether they were true. Is getting rid of one of our Boulder colleagues a victory simply because that colleague was accused of impropriety?
Andrew–it is false that “no one knows very much about the accusations against Monton”. I, for one, know quite a lot about them. So do many people at CU, and some people external to CU. *You* might not know very much about those accusations or their truth or falsity. But that does not mean that other people do not know very much about them.
I think that allowing further commenting on this post is likely to be more trouble than it is worth, so let’s call this thread closed.