ARCATA, Calif. – An American Indian Humboldt State University professor has
filed a lawsuit against the school claiming discrimination and harassment
in the latest chapter of troubles with American Indian faculty at the
school that dates back to 1999.

Native American Studies Professor Joe Giovanetti, who is Tolowa from the
Smith River Rancheria, is charging that California State University
Chancellor Charles Reed failed to investigate his charges after he had
filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) in 2003.

Giovanetti is the sole remaining professor of a group of three American
Indian professors who claimed discrimination by the Humboldt State
administration. The other two American Indian professors, Joseph Dupris and
his wife, Kathleen Hill, along with Giovanetti had filed the EEOC complaint
in 2001. The complaint was filed as a result of the three professors being
fired.

Problems began when the three professors had been hired for the project to
develop college and high school curriculum not only for Native American
Studies programs but also for other classes that could teach aspects of
American Indian tribal traditions, such as Civics and Law. The project,
entitled the American Indian Civics Project was done in conjunction with
the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

As reported in a 2000 Indian Country Today article, the professors
attempted to copyright their materials. Hill and Giovanetti were suspended
from the project by Project Co-directors Lois Risling, a Hoopa tribal
member, and Lily Owyang, both of whom are university administrators and
were named in the EEOC complaint.

“Things started to get weird and I began to see a pattern of systematic
elimination,” said Dupris of the period after he and Hill’s lawsuit.

Seven women accused Dupris of violating the Humboldt State Zero Tolerance
for Workplace Violence policy. Dupris insists that the things he was
accused of did not happen and that he had not even raised his voice.

An internal investigation at Humboldt State agreed with Dupis and he was
cleared of all charges, stated a document Dupris provided to Indian Country
Today. It was around this time that the three professors initiated the EEOC
investigation.

A university official allegedly approached Dupris who claimed that he
offered to destroy all documents if Dupris would drop the EEOC suit. Dupris
refused and allegedly found out a week later that all documents pertaining
to the Zero Tolerance complaint had been removed from his file.

The professors then sued after being cleared by the EEOC to do so, as is
required by law.

The case was settled out of court in 2003, avoiding a trial. As part of the
settlement, Giovanetti was given back wages and promoted to the rank of
associate professor. Hill was not able to keep her job and though Dupris,
Hill’s husband, was retained after the lawsuit, he decided to leave with
his wife. The two were granted $350,000 as part of the settlement, which
amounted to a little over $200,000 after lawyer’s fees.

Risling was promoted to interim director of Diversity and Compliance,
something that Giovanetti thinks ironic.

“It seems strange to me that she [Risling] would be promoted because she
was the center of a lawsuit that cost the school $900,000,” said Giovanetti
referring to the total amount of the settlement including attorney’s fees
for the school.

Giovanetti’s current suit is the result of what had happened after the
settlement. Though he received back pay as well as a promotion as part of
the settlement, he said that the school administration’s harassment did not
end there and he claims that the school’s administration began retaliation
against him.

By that time Giovanetti was serving as chairman of the Native American
Studies Department. He had recommended the hiring of two qualified American
Indian professors to replace Dupris and Hill.

After he had made these recommendations, Giovanetti alleged in a press
release that Humboldt State President Rollin Richmond told Giovanetti that
he “would not hire anyone who has the same perspective toward Native
American Studies as Giovanetti.”

The school then cited the state budget problems and used it as an excuse to
not hire the American Indian professors. Eventually, the school hired three
non-Indian professors including one that had applied eight weeks after the
application deadline.

Giovanetti said he had just received word this previous fall that the EEOC
had given him a green light to sue, as is required by law, when he was
dismissed as chairman of the Native American Studies Department, which
prompted student demonstrations in support of Giovanetti.

“It was literally within 15 minutes of my receiving the [EEOC] letter,”
said Giovanetti.

Currently the Native American Studies Department has six professors. Four,
including Giovanetti are American Indians and two are not. One of the
professors that Giovanetti had recommended, Dr. Marion Sherman, was
eventually hired as a part-time instructor and is now on tenure track.

Calls to specific administrators were referred to the university’s Public
Affairs Office. The university would only issue a general statement and
would not address specifics. Paul Mann, who works in Public Affairs for the
school said that the charges were “baseless.”

“We feel that these issues had already been addressed [in the earlier settlement],” said Mann.

Mann also went on to say that the university would not address specifics so
as to not “prejudice the case.”