Report: Harassment allegations follow ex-University professor to Texas

Benjamin G. Blount, a former University professor of anthropology who resigned in the wake of a sexual harassment investigation against him, harassed a female graduate student while working at his new university, according to a newspaper report.

The San Antonio Express-News reported Thursday that Blount, while a full professor at University of Texas San Antonio, harassed a female graduate student in 2006, causing the university to slice his salary in half and take him out of the classroom.

"If I am guilty of anything, I argue it is showing affection excessively and not any kind of harassment," Blount told the Express-News. "You can't do that now with younger students. Behavior that had been acceptable for most of my career became unacceptable, and it took me a little while to figure that out."

According to the newspaper, in July 2006, UTSA's Office of Institutional Diversity discovered Blount sexually harassed a graduate student under his supervision. While on a dinner with Blount to discuss her marital difficulties, and later at his home him to continue the discussion, Blount tried to kiss her twice and asked her to stay the night, according to documents.

Blount admitted that he went to dinner with the student, but denies he asked her to stay.

When she got up to leave, the newspaper reported, Blount said, "I put my arm around her and kissed her, it had nothing to do with sex, it was a reassuring kiss, kind of on the side of the lips. The next day she came to see me and we talked briefly and we both agreed that it was something we should not repeat and we should return to strictly academic matters."

The Athens Banner-Herald reported Sunday that Blount, while at Georgia, resigned in 2004 after a female professor of anthropology filed a letter with the Office of Legal Affairs detailing her account of what she described as inappropriate sexual advances from him. It was the fourth complaint against Blount going back to 1991.

Blount chose to resign before the investigation was complete.

The professor who filed the complaint told The Red & Black Sunday during a phone interview that it is important for cases to come to a conclusion "for everyone's sake," especially for the accuser and the accused.

"It certainly would have made my life easier if the University had completed the investigation, she said. "It created enormous stress in my job for a number of years."

In 2003, a student complained that Blount made unwelcome sexual advances, according to the documents retrieved by the Banner-Herald.

The student reported on May 5, 2003 to Legal Affairs that in a May 1, 2003 meeting with Blount he "started stroking my knee with both his hands. Then he progressed to my thigh and between my legs. I felt really uncomfortable, so I crossed my legs," according to the documents.

The Red & Black reported Monday that Blount left the University and immediately started working at UTSA as a full professor in the anthropology department. While there he was named to the UTSA faculty grievance committee, and was appointed as the editor of the American Anthropologist, the flagship journal of the American Anthro-pological Association, according to the journal's March 2005 issue.

After the allegations at UTSA, Blount said he proposed his own punishment, according to the Express-News story. The newspaper said Blount would quit teaching and interacting with students and cut his time and salary in half. His sole responsibility would be to edit American Anthropologist. But when word of Blount's troubles at UTSA reached the journal's staff last year, he resigned the editorship.

Blount remains at UTSA doing research only. UTSA spokesman David Gabler said UTSA is considering "additional disciplinary action," but Blount said he won't resign unless the university asks him to, according to the newspaper.

The San Antonio News-Express contributed to this story