The day after UConn released a report into allegations of sexual misconduct by the former head of the school's music department, the school has initiated disciplinary proceedings against UConn faculty members Robert Miller and David Woods.
Robert Miller, of Mansfield, has been on paid leave since July while police and school officials investigated allegations of sexual misconduct with university students and decades-old molestation involving children, including boys who attended a camp for ill children.
The report from DrinkerBiddle found that UConn's response to allegations of sexual misconduct were grossly inadequate prior to the current administration and that Dean David Woods had been told of two prior allegations of sexual misconduct with minors by Professor Miller, but he did not inform anyone, to their knowledge.
The governing collective bargaining agreement requires the University to follow a prescribed process. The first step in that process is to notify the employee of the recommended discipline and the reasons for that recommendation.
UConn said in a statement that professors Miller and Woods were notified today that, based on the findings and conclusions in the Report of Special Counsel to the Special Committee for Investigation Regarding the Alleged Misconduct of Robert F. Miller, that the University is starting the disciplinary process and that the recommended discipline is dismissal from university employment.
“Nothing can excuse some of the behavior detailed in this report on the part of certain individuals,” UConn President Susan Herbst said during Wednesday’s meeting of the University’s Board of Trustees.
She said the university would “take all appropriate action and we will do so as swiftly as possible” regarding a faculty member’s alleged misconduct and the failure of others to act on the matter.
She also told the board and others in attendance that UConn “will communicate our decisions to the board, the University and to the public at the appropriate time.”
