The former dean of Ohio U’s College of Business will be forced to choose between retiring early or having his tenure stripped as the result of repeated reports of inappropriate relationships with students and subordinates.
C. Aaron Kelley, currently a professor in the department of Management Information Systems, faces numerous accusations spanning from 1996 to 2008. He has acknowledged having sexual relationships with his secretary and a former student, but has denied allegations of having inappropriate relationships with two students he taught at OU’s Master of Business Administration program in India. OU also discovered 6,500 pornographic images on Kelley’s computer and fielded complaints about a Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendar Kelley kept on his desk, which reportedly made a female student uncomfortable.
OU President Roderick McDavis began formal de-tenuring proceedings against Kelley with a letter last September.
“Over a period of 13 years you have disregarded repeated warnings and have engaged in a pattern of behavior that was harmful to the university and the young women with whom you had a relationship,” McDavis wrote. “By repeatedly abusing your position of authority over students, you have created a significant risk of legal liability for sexual harassment claims against you and the university.”
Kelley was relieved of his teaching duties mid-Spring Quarter 2008 after questionable text messages surfaced between him and an Indian student. The department’s Promotion and Tenure Committee unanimously approved the move.
“Basically, we unanimously just felt we just could not in good conscience put Aaron back in the classroom,” said Department Chairwoman Mary Keifer, according to a transcript of Kelley’s appeal hearing before a Faculty Senate Committee.
OU hired Kelley to lead the college in 1993. He came from the University of Louisville, where he joined the faculty in 1981. Kelley received his doctorate from the University of North Texas and a master’s degree from the University of Utah.
The Post compiled this account of the accusations against Kelley from McDavis’ letter, the more than 100-page transcript of the appeal hearing and the Faculty Senate committee’s final report. OU employees were instructed not to talk about the case. Kelley’s attorney was on vacation last week, and did not respond to numerous messages seeking comment.
An Office Affair
Kelley’s affair with his then-secretary, Vicki Robbins, forced him to step down as dean of the College of Business in 1996.
The affair became public after Robbins delivered a letter – in which she said she wanted to leave the relationship, but could not – to every faculty and staff member in the college, current Dean Hugh Sherman said, according to the transcript.
A year earlier, then-President Robert Glidden and then-Provost David Stewart advised Kelley to break off the relationship, but it continued.
The Faculty Handbook addresses relationships among faculty and staff by indicating they “can raise special concerns.” Colleges and departments can use the same procedures to investigate problematic personal relationships they use to investigate alleged professional ethics and research violations, according to the handbook.
Kelley has said he left his position by “mutual consent.”
Following his resignation, Kelley spent a year teaching at OU’s Lancaster campus before returning to teach in Athens.
A Former Student
In 2001, Kelley began a relationship with a former student. The woman had been in two of Kelley’s classes during previous quarters. Kelley told the Faculty Senate committee the woman approached him.
“I told her no, it wasn’t appropriate, and that went on to an extent where, you know, it happened,” Kelley said, according to the transcript.
OU’s Faculty Handbook prohibits instructors from supervising or grading the academic work of a student with whom the instructor has or begins a sexual relationship. The university views such relationships as “inherently suspect” because of their potential for coercion.
At the time, OU determined the relationship didn’t violate university policy. But John Biancamano, OU’s current general counsel, said Kelley’s behavior concerns him. Bincamano did not work for OU at the time of that case.
“I know a lot of students come here to get an education and I don’t know how I would explain to their moms and dads that we view it as appropriate for faculty to hit on an 18-year-old when she arrives,” Biancamano said, according to the transcript. “I mean, that’s a separate issue from a technical violation, but it’s something that we have to bear in mind.”
The relationship became public after Kelley was offered a job as dean of the business school at Coastal Carolina University. Kelley declined the offer. Sherman, who was the department chairman, told Kelley “to avoid such behavior in the future,” adding that it reflected badly on the college and was “a serious breach of professional standards.”
‘Mr. Banana’
Kelley also has been accused of having inappropriate relationships with two of his students in OU’s Master of Business Administration program in India.
The first of those apparent relationships happened in 2002, at which point Kelley was removed from the program for several years.
The most recent allegation surfaced in 2008 and suggests Kelley had an inappropriate relationship with an Indian student in 2007. That accusation surfaced in January 2008, when professor John Schermerhorn arrived to teach in India and was given the university-owned cell phone Kelley had used the previous summer. Schermerhorn informed the program’s directors he had found what appeared to be inappropriate text messages on the phone.
“It’s clear from the content of the messages that the sender had more than a friendly relationship with the recipient,” Sherman said, according to the transcript. “It is also clear that the recipient was one of Kelley’s students.”
There were no messages from any other students on the phone, Sherman said.
Other Indian students brought the relationship to OU’s attention when they became concerned about the woman’s grades, Sherman said. They forwarded e-mails to OU professors in India.
“U r so bad. U gave me an A minus. I don’t like u,” reads one e-mail from the student he reputedly was having an affair with. Kelley responded on a traditional scale the grade would have been a B+, but he adjusted the scale to give her an A-, Biancamano said.
Kelley defended the exchange, saying he simply had adjusted his overall grading scale the year before to accommodate concerns from leaders at the Indian school.
OU administrators also found several photos of Kelley standing arm in arm with the woman, but acknowledge they have no definitive proof of a sexual relationship, according to the transcript. They were not able to get in touch with either woman.
Chris Yost, an OU professor who worked with Kelley in India, sent a statement to the Faculty Senate committee saying she had never seen Kelley behaving inappropriately with students.
“I never witnessed anything even suspicious about any behavior, either on his part or any student’s part,” she stated. “Dr. Kelley was completely professional in all student interactions I encountered.”
Professor Robert Sarikas, who also taught in India with Kelley, said it was not unusual for OU professors there to socialize with students. Kelley also told the senators it was not unusual for the students to go to the professors’ hotel to discuss work.
Still, McDavis and some faculty senators said they wondered about some nicknames and other language Kelley used in correspondence with the students.
Kelley referred to the one Indian woman as “Sleepy.” He explained it was because she often slept through his class. He also referred to himself as “Mr. Banana,” a nickname he said the student gave him because she liked fruit-related nicknames. He also signed some messages to her with “love u.”
One message from Kelley to the student reads, “Hello, :) so I guess no time for banana again today :( ,” according to the transcript of the Faculty Senate hearing. Kelley said the message referred to the student being unable to make a meeting with him.
At the Faculty Senate hearing, Kelley acknowledged some of the language he chose could be construed as inappropriate.
Faculty Senate Chairman Joe McLaughlin, who also ran the hearing committee, said given Kelley’s past experiences, he was surprised the professor was not more careful with his language.
“Even if I were willing to grant what you’re saying about this conversation in 2008, it doesn’t strike me as a person who’s being careful,” McLaughlin said, according to the transcript. “It seems to me that given the history there one would want to hold oneself to a higher level of propriety or what’s appropriate in a conversation like that, really not wanting to leave anything to interpretation.”
Pornography and Swimsuits
Other charges against Kelley stem from the discovery of 6,500 pornographic images found on his university computer. Kelley has said he must have inadvertently transferred them to that computer from a flash drive when he was restoring other documents.
Kelley has also been criticized for having a day-by-day Sports Illustrated swimsuit calendar on his desk, which college employees said at the hearing made at least one female student worker uncomfortable.
Tenure
None of the students allegedly involved with Kelley have filed complaints, but university administrators said at the hearing Kelley’s behavior has exposed the university to liability in potential sexual harassment claims.
Sherman and Keifer said the concern at the college level was the pattern of behavior, regardless of whether Kelley violated specific OU policies, according to the transcript.
Kelley said he thinks OU administrators and some business faculty are biased against him because of what they think he did.
“I think central administration decided they were going to get rid of me,” Kelley said, according to the transcript. “All of a sudden I went from being one of the best faculty members in the College of Business to being of harm to my students and jerking me out of class mid-quarter.”
At the Faculty Senate hearing, Kelley’s attorney raised questions about the validity of some of the statements from people in India. She was concerned that they were not notarized or easy to verify.
By September, when McDavis initiated the de-tenuring proceedings, a committee in Kelley’s department as well as Dean Sherman and then-Provost Kathy Krendl had all recommended Kelley’s tenure be revoked. The Faculty Senate committee has since unanimously made the same recommendation.
Now, OU has told Kelley unless he chooses to retire, McDavis will ask the Board of Trustees to revoke his tenure. Kelley and his attorney would be invited to appear before the board in that case, and the trustees would take one of two possible actions. They could sustain the hearing committee’s decision, thereby revoking tenure, or they can return the question to the committee with specific objections. If the board returned the case to the committee, senators would discuss the case again and submit another report to the board. The trustees would then vote on whether to revoke Kelley’s tenure.
Kelley’s case is not on the board’s agenda for its meeting this week. If he retires, Kelley will be entitled to his full retirement benefits from the State Teachers’ Retirement System.