UW-Stevens Point assistant dean accused of sex harassment went on to work at other schools

Note: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual misconduct that may be offensive to some readers or painful to survivors of sexual assault and harassment. We think it is necessary to report this information as a warning and a reminder of what comprises sexual abuse. This story also has been updated since first published to include responses from university officials.

STEVENS POINT - A University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point official who handled sexual misconduct complaints resigned after he was accused of sexually harassing a woman on campus in 2015, then went on to hold identical jobs at other universities, including at another UW school, according to newly-released records.

UW-Stevens Point found in an investigation that Shawn Wilson, a former assistant dean of students and deputy Title IX coordinator at the school, sexually harassed a female employee of a business in the Dreyfus University Center during move-in weekend in 2015, according to the documents, which the Stevens Point Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel obtained from the University of Wisconsin System.

Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in education. Wilson's job included responding to complaints of sexual and behavioral misconduct.

The UWSP investigation revealed a pattern of unprofessional conduct toward employees of the unnamed business in the year prior to the August 2015 incident. Wilson denied all accusations in an interview with Katie Jore, associate vice chancellor for personnel, budget and grants, who conducted the investigation. 

The Aug. 29, 2015, move-in weekend incident was reported on Sept. 11, 2015, and Provost Greg Summers placed Wilson on paid administrative leave on Sept. 14, 2015. He submitted his resignation letter a month later, but landed assistant dean and Title IX positions in Illinois and then UW-Eau Claire.

He has since left both jobs.

Officials at both those schools said a UWSP supervisor they contacted for a job reference for Wilson didn't disclose the harassment investigation.

According to Jore's report:

► An unnamed woman was working at a water tent and helping students move in. The employee, a former UWSP student, was sitting outside of the residence halls when Wilson walked by. She asked if there was anything she could do to help, referring to move-in weekend. Wilson replied: "You really don't want to ask that. I really want you to come home with me," the employee told Jore.

► The woman said no and reminded him that she was married. He persisted, asking if she could come home anyway. She nervously laughed at the comment, she told investigators, but he continued. 

► "What I really want to do is to bend you over and show you a good time. You would be my firework and I would explode all over you," Wilson said, according to the account the woman gave investigators. She replied: "I don't know what to say to that." Before walking away, Wilson said, "What can you say to that?"

In the woman's interview with Jore, she said no one was within earshot of the conversation, but that people were nearby. She did not know Wilson was an assistant dean of students until after the interaction.

Hours after the incident, the woman appeared visibly shaken and said only that she was tired, her manager told investigators. The next day, she reported the harassment to her manager.

The manager told investigators that the incident left the woman feeling embarrassed, uncomfortable and threatened — and that at one point while she was describing Wilson's behavior, she needed to step away to collect herself.

Wilson, in an interview with university investigators, denied the accusations. He said he saw her in the morning and that they had a "casual interaction" where they talked about her dress and how long she would be working the water tent. He said that he went home at about 12:15 p.m. that day.

When asked by investigators if anything he said could have been misinterpreted, he said no. However, he said he had an explicit conversation with his spouse away from crowds, but didn't remember what it was about.

At some point in the interview, Wilson began crying and pacing the room. He told investigators how hard his job is and how much he wants to serve students. He also told investigators he was going through a divorce. Portage County court records show his divorce proceedings started in August 2015 before move-in weekend and ended the following January.

This wasn't the first time Wilson tried to get the woman to come home with him, the complaint states. 

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Starting in June 2015, she said she began seeing Wilson on Briggs Street during her smoke breaks, where she would often talk with him about her wedding plans and other topics. 

However, on multiple occasions, she said Wilson asked her if there was any way he could get her to come home with him. She always said no. He would walk away after the rejection. One time, she said, Wilson pulled up next to her in his car and asked her the same question. 

Wilson also denied those accusations. He said he may have said she had a pretty smile.

Interviews with the manager and employees of the business indicate that Wilson's behavior routinely left them feeling uncomfortable.

In the year leading up to the harassment allegations against Wilson, he would make long, weekly visits to the business in the student center. He would talk to employees like they were on a "friend level,"  use vulgar language and sometimes discuss student disciplinary issues, they reported.

He also repeatedly asked one of the employees for her phone number, which initially the manager took as a joke.

The manager requested that Wilson be barred from visiting the business following the move-in weekend incident.

Letter from the chancellor

About 18 days after the complaint was filed and Jore conducted her initial fact-finding, UWSP Chancellor Bernie Patterson issued a letter to Wilson asking to meet with him to discuss the matter.

"Mr. Wilson, these are very serious allegations. I am considering several possible responses that I would like to discuss with you," the chancellor wrote. "I will be assigning Dr. Jore to continue her investigation ... and I must be clear that, if the investigation supports the allegations in the complaint, we will issue charges ... for discipline up to and including dismissal."

The documents do not disclose whether Patterson and Wilson met.

On Oct. 12, 2015, Jore delivered her final report on the incident to Patterson. In it, she concluded that that he visited the unnamed business several times and that he would use "coarse or vulgar language" in conversations with employees.

Jore also concluded that although there were no witnesses to the move-in weekend incident, a number of the woman's coworkers "attest that (the employee, whose name was redacted in the released records) was visibly upset after returning from this alleged interaction and who heard her recounting of the incident the next morning." 

Jore added that there appeared to be no connection between the employee and Wilson outside of interactions at her place of business. 

"There is especially no motivation for giving a false statement," Jore wrote.

Wilson submitted his resignation letter on Oct. 22, 2015, with an effective date of Jan. 8, 2016. UWSP had finished its investigation at that point, but Wilson resigned before it could carry out the disciplinary process, Jore wrote in an email to the Stevens Point Journal.

In January 2016, he took a new job as associate dean of students for Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. His duties there also included serving as deputy Title IX coordinator. He worked there until September 2016. Knox College spokeswoman Megan Scott would not comment on the reasons for his departure or whether the university was aware of his prior conduct, although she said the school conducts background and reference checks before hiring. 

"In general, if the College was made aware of a past sexual harassment complaint during the hiring process, we would not hire that individual to be associated with our Title IX team," Scott said in an email. 

Wilson resurfaced in the UW System in August 2017, when UW-Eau Claire hired him as interim assistant dean of students, which again included serving as a deputy Title IX coordinator.

His tenure at Eau Claire was short-lived, after UW-Stevens Point officials learned he had been hired there.

Omissions in reference checks

"When UW-Stevens Point human resources was made aware of (Wilson's conduct and his hiring at UW-Eau Claire), we contacted UW-Eau Claire," Jore said in an email.

Wilson resigned from the Eau Claire job on Nov. 1, 2017. 

Jore said that Knox College and UW-Eau Claire had called Wilson's former supervisor for reference checks. Officials at Knox and UW-Eau Claire told the Stevens Point Journal that the sexual harassment complaint did not come up in those checks. 

"During that reference check, there was no disclosure of sexual harassment or the complaint’s findings," Mike Rindo, UW-Eau Claire assistant chancellor for facilities and university relations, said. "We can request personnel records (from other UW schools), but it’s not the standard practice to do so. We rely on industry-wide standards of relying on reference checks. No potential issues were presented to us in that reference check."

Neither Jore nor Rindo named the former supervisor. According to UW-Stevens Point organizational charts, Troy Seppelt, dean of students, and Al Thompson, vice chancellor for student affairs, rank higher than Wilson's position at the time he was there. 

Jore interviewed the two in 2015. Thompson told her that he was unaware of Wilson's interactions with employees at the student center. 

Seppelt told her that he was aware that Wilson had been interacting with people at the business, but expressed shock at the allegations. He told Jore that "it was very out of character," and that Wilson had no prior history of sexual harassment.

He said in 2015 that he had coffee twice with Wilson after the incident was reported to make sure he was OK, having also provided him with a copy of the university's policies on termination based on misconduct.

Wilson did not return phone calls requesting comment.