FORMER DEAN'S HARASSMENT CASE AGAINST MIT IS DISMISSED
                                       
   By Christopher L. Falling
   Associate News Editor
   
   
   On Feb. 3, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination
   dismissed the harassment case filed about a year and a half ago
   against the Institute by former Associate Dean for Residence and
   Campus Activities James R. Tewhey, finding it to be without probable
   cause. 
   
   Tewhey has since appealed the decision. 
   
   MCAD, a state agency that hears harassment and discrimination cases,
   "has totally misunderstood the facts," Tewhey said. "They claim that I
   have not filed any written complaints when the record shows that there
   are two written grievances with MIT. The decision they came to is
   supported by neither legal theory nor the facts; that is why I
   appealed it," he said. 
   
   In a copy of a letter sent to Tewhey from Personnel Director Joan F.
   Rice and printed in The Tech on Nov. 30, 1993, Rice said "that there
   was not sufficient basis for MIT to go forward and process the
   grievance." 
   
   Responding to MCAD's recent dismissal of his case, Tewhey provided a
   short note requesting an appeal in mid-February, he said. "I will send
   a memorandum of law to MCAD sometime next week." 
   
   Tewhey's appeal will be evaluated by an investigating commissioner not
   yet assigned, said Jane Brayton, a spokesperson for MCAD. 
   
   "My guess is that a hearing for the appeal will not be scheduled for
   another four-to-five weeks," Tewhey said. 
   
  FIRST CHARGES FILED IN 1993
  
   
   
   In April 1993 a Newton court placed a restraining order on Tewhey,
   barring him from coming within five yards of Katherine M. Nolan, a
   financial aid administrator with whom he had an 18-month-long affair. 
   
   Tewhey and Nolan had filed harassment charges against each other
   within MIT and secured restraining orders against one another. On
   April 16 of that year Tewhey and Provost Mark S. Wrighton decided that
   his position was untenable after the Newton court extended Nolan's
   restraining order for six months. 
   
   Wrighton announced that Tewhey had resigned on April 20, 1993, but
   Tewhey never signed a letter of resignation and officially left MIT
   that October. 
   
   Charges that Tewhey was a poor manager and that he harassed students
   surfaced. As a result of some of those charges, J. Paul Kirby '92
   filed a complaint against Sharon P. Shea, a staff accountant who
   worked with the Undergraduate Association Finance Board. Kirby charged
   Shea with spreading malicious rumors about Tewhey and him. 
   
   MIT's investigation of Shea concluded that "no further action is
   called for in processing [Kirby's] grievance," Wrighton wrote in a
   letter to Kirby. Wrighton also concluded that Shea had shown poor
   judgment concerning "rumors about [Kirby and Tewhey]," he wrote. 
   
   After MIT's investigation concluded, Tewhey and Shea turned to MCAD to
   determine if they should proceed to trial. 
   
   Tewhey filed the charges on Aug. 17, 1993. Shea filed her MCAD
   complaint against MIT on Nov. 2, 1993, charging she was denied a
   promotion and her workload was reduced because of her suit against
   Tewhey and Kirby's suit against her. Her MCAD complaint is still under
   investigation. 
   
   "I think that MCAD has done an awful review of the record," Tewhey
   said. "They have never investigated my charges against Sharon Shea or
   claims of retaliation," he said.  
     _________________________________________________________________ 
   
   Copyright 1995, The Tech. All rights reserved.
   This story was published on March 17, 1995.
   Volume 115, Number 12.
   This story appeared on page 10.
   
   This article may be freely distributed electronically, provided it is
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