McCubbin broke no rules, U. of Wisconsin files show

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

An investigation into a sexual harassment complaint against Hamilton McCubbin revealed a complicated relationship — at times friendly, at times tense — between McCubbin and an assistant professor he supervised at the University of Wisconsin in the late 1990s. But the university recommended that no action be taken against McCubbin because he had not broken any rules.

"I had been completely exonerated," Hamilton McCubbin said in a statement. Advertiser library photo

Kang filed the complaint five months after she was denied tenure.

The personnel commission never made a final ruling because the case was settled in December 1999 when Kang withdrew her complaint, according to the case file of the investigation obtained yesterday by The Advertiser. As part of her settlement, Kang received $85,813 and left the university.

McCubbin also left the university in 1999 and accepted a job as chief executive officer of Kamehameha Schools in January 2000.

Details of the Wisconsin case are being scrutinized in the aftermath of his sudden resignation from Kamehameha Schools last week. Several people close to the situation said the current trustees had been investigating allegations that McCubbin had an inappropriate relationship with a female Kamehameha staff member.

The settlement of the Kang complaint just weeks before McCubbin took the Kamehameha job has raised questions about how much the trustees who hired him knew about his days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

The current Kamehameha trustees are barred by a confidentiality agreement from talking about McCubbin's resignation. But David Coon, one of the former interim trustees who hired McCubbin, said yesterday he saw no "red flags" regarding McCubbin.

"Obviously we retained him, we hired him," said Coon, a former headmaster at Iolani School. "So he had a clean slate as far as we were concerned. I'd been at Iolani too long to hire someone who was going to hurt the school (Kamehameha). If you saw a red flag, you would say, 'Whoops.' "

Coon declined to say what, if anything, McCubbin told the interim trustees about the Kang complaint. He also declined to discuss whether Kamehameha officials checked his background.

Another interim trustee, attorney Ronald Libkuman, declined to comment. Former Honolulu Police Chief Francis Keala, another interim trustee, could not be reached. The two other interim trustees, Robert Kihune and Constance Lau, are now permanent trustees and have said they will not talk about McCubbin.

After Kang's complaint was investigated at the university, senior university legal counsel John Dowling said then-Chancellor David Ward and Provost John Wiley met with McCubbin to discuss the leadership of the School of Human Ecology that McCubbin oversaw as its dean.

On Monday, Dowling told The Advertiser that no disciplinary action was taken against McCubbin but that his resignation was a condition of the settlement.

Yesterday, he told the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison that university officials did not force McCubbin to leave.

"He resigned as dean shortly thereafter," Dowling told the newspaper. "He left on his own accord."

McCubbin announced his resignation in April 1999 and planned to take a year's sabbatical. He said he then planned to return as a tenured professor in the school's child and family studies department and the school of social work.

The documents in the Kang complaint include hundreds of pages of e-mails, phone records, handwritten notes and testimony. They detail a complicated, two-year relationship between McCubbin — who is married — and Kang, who at the time was recently divorced. Kang said McCubbin was clearly pursuing a romantic relationship with her, but McCubbin denied it.

"During the course of the investigation," according to the university's report, "Dean McCubbin acknowledged many of the complainant's general factual allegations and provided additional information concerning the events contained in the complaint. He specifically denied that he pursued an intimate or romantic relationship with the complainant. He further denied that he engaged in behavior that violated any university rule or regulation or that amounted to illegal sex discrimination or harassment."

The report said that Kang also sent many friendly e-mails to McCubbin. She also bought gifts for McCubbin and framed a Matisse drawing of a nude female that McCubbin gave her.

In the fall of 1996, Kang gave McCubbin a $200 gift certificate to buy a new cell phone. In January 1997, she bought him a $93 cashmere sweater as a belated holiday gift. The sweater was too small for McCubbin, so Kang exchanged it for a larger cashmere sweater that cost $195. McCubbin reciprocated with a leather travel kit.

Despite her outwardly collegial relationship with McCubbin, the documents say Kang at times felt uncomfortable with McCubbin's attention. She said he twice sent her a dozen roses, along with various other gifts. She said she began screening her calls with caller ID and would not answer the phone when she thought McCubbin was calling.

But the university report also found that Kang gave McCubbin her new phone number a week after she changed it. In late 1997, she told an administration official about her concerns about McCubbin, but specifically asked that no action be taken.

In May 1998, Kang was denied tenure and McCubbin "took steps to insure that Prof. Kang got the best appeal possible," according to the report. "He was heard to say that he had never lost a tenure case yet and that he would not lose this one."

"Prof. Kang apparently made a decision that she wanted Dean McCubbin to continue to like her so that he could continue to help her professionally," according to the report. "Prof. Kang did what she could to reciprocate with acts of friendship, was grateful to him and jovial, and continued the pattern of holiday gift-giving she had established."

But Kang's appeal on tenure was denied in July 1998.

In December 1998, Kang filed a discrimination complaint alleging that McCubbin's "behavior has created an abusive work environment that is sufficiently pervasive to have altered the terms and conditions of her employment."

University officials interviewed Kang and McCubbin and sifted through "numerous documents and records, including telephone records and recordings, personal correspondence, travel records and tenure records were also thoroughly reviewed," according to the report. "As a result of the investigation, it was determined that there had been no violation of university rules or regulations that could lead to the discipline or dismissal of Dean McCubbin."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.