🚀 go-pugleaf

I don't usually do forwarding of postings to multiple newsgroups.. That 
said, I think that this one deserves attention.

Jim Duffield (staffy@omen.com.au) wrote re Parliamentary Speech by Mark 
Nevill on the UWA Archaeology/Rindos Affair..

: http://wings.buffalo.edu/~hjarvis/rindos.htm/
: 
: for a full display/discussion/analysis on the subject.
: 
: Interesting academic politics.
: 
: 			   Western Australia
: 			Parliamentary Debates
: 			      (HANSARD)
: 
: 		       Thirty-fourth Parliament
: 			     Third Session
: 			         1995
: 
: [Thursday 14 December  Pp. 13191-13203]
: 
: HON MARK NEVILL (Mining and Pastoral):
: 
: [...]
: 
: I now take the opportunity available in debate on this Bill to
: speak on other issues.  In doing so, I address what I consider
: to be a very serious situation at the University of Western
: Australia. I have been involved in negotiations and discussion
: for 12 to 18 months in this matter, and feel very little
: progress has been made.  The handling of the archaeology affair
: at the University of Western Australia is unfortunately an
: unfinished chapter in that institution's history. Deputy Vice
: Chancellor Robson seems to think it has been completed and that
: there is nothing more to say and nothing more will happen.  He
: is quite wrong.  Anyone who examines the facts of the matter in
: detail will soon realise that the handling of this issue by the
: University of Western Australia has been disgraceful and,
: probably, scandalous.
: 
: The affair at the University of Western Australia involves the
: exploitation of students in that department.  There is also the
: sexual exploitation of students.  I believe the University of
: Western Australia has abrogated its duty of care to the students
: in that department, some of who have been forced to leave the
: department and complete their studies overseas.  The treatment
: of Dr David Rindos has been appalling.  It was the subject of a
: very competent article by Kate Legge in The Weekend Australian
: some weeks ago and an editorial in The Australian the following
: Monday.  The behaviour of Professor Sandra Bowdler and her group
: of followers has been appalling also.
: 
: I am disconcerted by the failure of the management of UWA to
: address this problem properly.  The subsequent denial of tenure
: to Dr David Rindos should never have happened.  Management
: claims that the denial of tenure had nothing to do with the
: problems in the archaeology department.  It is clear that it has
: everything to do with the problems in that department.  I have
: met the vice chancellor and the deputy vice chancellor on a
: number of occasions.  I have been involved in some discussions
: to try to resolve this issue but each time I seem to meet with
: disinterest, as though the matter is in the past and no more can
: be done to resolve it.
: 
: Hon Derrick Tomlinson: The problem is not disinterest.  There is
: real interest, not a lack of interest because of that interest. 
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL: I can accept what the member is saying.  The
: politics of the University of Western Australia have been in top
: gear for some time to avoid dealing with the crux of the
: problem.  Deputy Vice Chancellor Robson seems to have his head
: in the sand as though no problem exists.  He claims that all the
: bad publicity that UWA can get from this issue has already been
: served on it.  I do not believe Professor Robson really
: understands the depth of feeling both within UWA and the
: university communities nationally and internationally.  Dr
: Rindos is a pre-eminent archaeologist.  He has written some
: seminal works in archaeology and is regarded as one of the most
: original thinkers in archaeology in the world.  Dr Rindos has
: his strange facets, but that is often the case with academics. 
: 
: The University of western Australia has failed to comply with
: the directives of the freedom of information commissioner, who
: has made findings against UWA.  The result of this affair is
: that UWA and the university community in general have failed to
: provide a credible and viable archaeology discipline to service
: the needs of Western Australia.  With issues such as Mabo and
: economic development it is essential that we have a functioning
: archaeology unit in Western Australia which has respect and
: credibility and which turns out competent graduates. 
: 
: I recently visited some caves in the north Kimberley to examine
: some Bradshaw figures which predate the Wandjinas, which the
: current tribes have painted on the cave walls.  The Bradshaw
: figures relate to completely different people that were here
: earlier.  Very little research has been done on those figures. 
: I have a published volume of photographs of some of the figures
: signed by the author, whose name escapes me.  I met him at
: Drysdale River station.  I think his name is Graham Walsh.  We
: have a vast amount of archaeological information in this State,
: the surface of which has barely scratched.  We do not have
: available, credible archaeology faculty in this State.  I
: believe UWA has badly let down Western Australia. 
: 
: My frustration with this issue has resulted in my writing a
: letter to the Standing Committee on Government Agencies to try
: to interest it in examining some of the matters associated with
: this archaeology affair. Following my letter, I gave evidence to
: the committee.  The issue is in the committee's hands because it
: is up to committee members to decided what to do.  The matter
: should be put in the public arena.  I urge members of this House
: to take an interest because it goes to the heart of how our
: universities are run.  Universities should be autonomous but at
: the same time they should be accountable.  Because the
: University of Western Australia Act is a Statue of this House,
: we have an obligation to ensure that the university is properly
: managed and complies with any state legislative requirements.
: 
: I will briefly run through some of the details of the matter. 
: At the end of my speech I will table a number of documents from
: which I will quote.  It is important that the documents are
: placed into the public domain.  Names have been obliterated from
: some of the documents where they contain sensitive personal
: information.  In 1988 Dr David Rindos was vigorously recruited
: to the University of Western Australia.  He was offered a senior
: position.  Professor Sandra Bowdler was then the head of
: department of archaeology.  She praised him in a letter saying
: that they very lucky to be able to get him."  Dr Rindos arrived
: about mid-June 1989.  Four years later he was sacked by the very
: University which had worked so hard to get him there.  His
: reputation, his good name, and his abilities have been attacked
: public statements from the University.  The question I ask is:
: How could this occur?
: 
: About six months after Dr Rindos arrived he became the acting
: head of the archaeology department.  As the acting head he was
: bound by University regulations governing heads of departments,
: by the policy on equity issues, and by a  Statutes of this
: Parliament -- the University of Western Australia Act.  Those
: requirements exist to ensure that the affairs of his department
: were conducted properly and legally.  They are Statutes and
: regulations that no head of department can ignore. Under those
: obligations, Dr Rindos was required to inform the University of
: any possible irregularities.  His dedication to properly
: carrying out his role properly as acting head of archaeology was
: to bring him nothing but trouble, and the eventual loss of his
: position.
: 
: As the acting head of the department Dr Rindos received numerous
: complaints about unprofessional behaviour within the department
: which had led to direct harm to students working within that
: department. When Dr Rindos approached Professor Bowdler to
: discuss the problems, he was rebuffed.  This occurred on more
: than one occasion.  Later he attempted to invoke dispute
: resolution procedures of the university. Professor Bowdler
: publicly attacked him, claiming there was no dispute and that Dr
: Rindos had to "learn to obey."  Soon afterwards Dr Rindos found
: himself shunned, harassed and victimized in the same way as the
: students who had motivated his concern had been harassed and
: victimised. 
: 
: Dr Rindos reported to the Head of Division, Professor Charles
: Oxnard, a world-renowned scholar and an administrator of great
: experience.  I have met and spoken to Professor Oxnard.  He is a
: man who impresses me with his thoroughness and restrained
: exposition of events as he saw them.  He does not resort to
: embellishment or exaggeration to get effect, but simply applies
: an objective clinical analysis of the facts.  He is an
: impressive man.  Under the structure which has existed since I
: was at the University of Western Australia, different department
: come under a division.  He was not directly in the archaeology
: department, but was responsible for a number of department in
: each division. 
: 
: In 1990, Dr Rindos presented Professor Oxnard with a written
: summary of problems.  However, like so many documents connected
: to the archaeology affair at UWA, this has disappeared from
: university files. Professor Oxnard was already aware of the
: problems in archaeology, and also believed that Bowdler was
: carrying out a plan to get rid of Dr Rindos because he refused
: to collaborate with this culture of corruption and intimidation
: that was entrenched in the archaeology department. Professor
: Oxnard directed Dr Rindos to report to the Equity Office about
: the conditions in the department.   The equity office used to be
: an autonomous office.  Since this affair blew up it has been
: subsumed into the direct control of the vice chancellor.  Dr
: Rindos was privately warned by the Equity Officer, Ms Marie
: Osman, about "close personal ties" between Professor Bowdler and
: the university's Vice Chancellor, Professor Fay Gale.  Professor
: Oxnard also sent Rindos to see Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor
: Robert Parfitt.  I have spoken to Professor Parfitt about this
: matter.  He firmly supports the position of Dr David Rindos. 
: Professor Parfitt is now based in England.  He is also a
: well-known scholar and has extensive experience in university,
: government and business administration.
: 
: Professor Parfitt had also conducted some inquiries.  He knew of
: the problems, and confirmed that Dr Rindos had acted properly in
: keeping with his duties as an acting head of department.  He
: believed Dr Rindos was acting in the best interests of the
: University and its students by reporting the matters that were
: drawn to his attention -- the matters that Professor Bowdler
: refused to rectify.  Professor Oxnard and Deputy vice chancellor
: Parfitt took steps to rectify the problems problems that they
: knew were occurring in the archaeology department.   In early
: 1991, Dr Rindos and several postgraduate students, all female,
: were formally transferred to the geography department for
: protection from Professor Bowdler and her followers.  The move
: was done with the full approval of the equity office and
: university administrators, including Vice Chancellor Gale.  Dr
: Rindos' students were given extraordinary extensions to
: scholarships and were even funded by the University to make up 
: for the poor academic conditions they had previously suffered. 
: By this action the the university confirmed that victimisation
: existed and that it had interfered with the proper academic
: progress of the students.  The university bore the costs of the
: move.  All the reports that I can garner indicate that the move
: of those student to the geography department was a total
: success.
: 
: [Sitting suspended from 12.30 to 2.00 pm]
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL: By the end of 1991, the responsible
: administrators who had arranged this solution left their
: positions at the University of Western Australia; that is,
: Professor Moulden [sic=Oxnard] and Professor Parfitt. After they
: had left the university Dr Rindos was to be removed from his
: new-found safety in the geography department.  In my opinion
: this was the first step by the university to get rid of this
: whistle-blower.
: 
: The next event that occurred was the review of the archaeology
: department .  That was the major response of the university to
: complaints about the archaeology department.  Its task was to
: carry out a formal review of conditions in the department.  The
: report of the committee is among the papers that I will seek to
: table at the end of my speech, and was made public via a freedom
: of information application after access was refused. 
: 
: The committee of review comprised Dr Neville Bruce and Professor
: Moulden and it received information from more than 40 people
: including students, staff and administrators.  It also received
: a dozen unsolicited written submissions.  The committee received
: a full report from Professor Bowdler, surveyed the students in
: the department, and considered all of the documents that were
: available on the university files.  The review committee
: concluded that overwhelming evidence existed of longstanding
: problems in the archaeology department, problems that
: constituted a threat to everything that a University should
: stand for, and problems that needed correction or action taken
: for the sake of the University itself. The Committee finished
: its Report in December 1991.. 
: 
:     The report made 12 recommendations, the first three stating --
: 
:     RECOMMENDATION 1
: 
:     that the Vice-Chancellor investigates, as a matter of priority, the
:     management practices in the Department.
: 
:     RECOMMENDATION 2
: 
:     that the Vice-Chancellor resolves the division that have developed,
:     within the Department.
: 
:     RECOMMENDATION 3
: 
:     that the Vice-Chancellor, in conjunction with the Equity Officer,
:     investigates purportedly inequitable behavior within the
:     Department. 
: 
: 
: Subsequent to that, none of these recommendations were properly
: implemented nor fully carried out by the University.  Given the
: magnitude, and exceedingly sensitive nature of the problems that
: were discovered, confidential memoranda were circulated with
: that report by the committee.  These memoranda contained greater
: detail than was in the report.  I will I quote at length from
: one so you may appreciate the findings that were reported to the
: administrators at the University of Western Australia.  It
: states --
: 
:     In the course of our Academic Review certain matters were forced
:     upon our attention.  These consisted of a number of serious
:     allegations.  Given that we had only the normal resources available
:     to any Academic Review panel, it will be clear that we had neither
:     the skills nor the time nor the facilities to investigate these
:     allegations in depth, nor to evaluate each one in detail  We
:     therefore emphasise that we cannot adjudicate upon the truth or
:     otherwise of the allegations, and it was not possible in terms of
:     either or schedule or our remit to attempt to prove or disprove
:     them.  Nevertheless, the allegations were sufficiently grave,
:     sufficiently numerous, sufficiently consistent and potentially
:     sufficiently damaging to the ideals and the reputation of this
:     University that we could not as individuals ignore them and feel
:     that the University as an institution likewise cannot afford to
:     ignore them.
: 
:     The essence of what we are saying is this: We have formed the
:     impression that there are sufficient grounds for concern to suggest
:     that the allegations be investigated by a properly constituted body
:     of enquiry.  In our view this is of immediate importance for at
:     least three reasons: firstly, if any one of them proved to be true
:     then urgent and vigorous action would, we feel, be necessary.
:     Secondly, they are of sufficiently wide currency to be in
:     themselves damaging to individuals and the institution. 
: 
: That memorandum was written by Professor Neville Bruce and Professor
: Bernand Moulden.  It goes on to state --
: 
:     Most of the verbal and written allegations received related to
:     three issues.
: 
:     (1)  It was alleged that a number of graduate and undergraduate
:          students had had sexual relations with a member of staff [they
:          refer here to Professor Sandra Bowdler] and that this had been
:          followed by favoured treatment of some (for example, in terms
:          of grants and jobs within the Department) and apparent
:          victimisation of others (including public ridicule and denial
:          of fair opportunity).
: 
:     (2)  It was alleged that an environment had been fostered in which
:          cynicism and ridicule were used to promote certain theoretic
:          approaches and denigrate others, and that this stultified free
:          academic exchange, damaged academic reputations and integrity,
:          and ultimately severely retarded academic growth, particularly
:          of some promising postgraduate students.
: 
:     (3)  Because the Director of the Centre of Prehistory has an
:          influential position on a number of relevant committees
:          outside the University, there was alleged to be a conflict of
:          interest regarding the University's involvement in commercial
:          archaeology.  We were told that this could damage both the
:          university's reputation and its finances.
: 
: 
: Part 2 of that document, which contains Professor Bruce's summary and
: which I will table, states -- 
: 
:     The academic environment in the Department, in terms of
:     equity,freedom of expression, impartiality, abuse of power and
:     general management, appeared to be appalling.
: 
: The Review Committee called for a formal Committee of Inquiry.
: Everyone who had appeared before the Committee was asked to
: provide legally admissible letters of evidence.  I will table
: some of those letters as part of these documents, of course with
: the names of the authors expunged.  These letters prove
: conditions in archaeology constituted a scandal without
: precedent in the history of Australian Higher Education, and one
: which was to be covered up rather than corrected.
: 
: I will now go through some of the testimony given to that
: review. The first area of testimony relates to sexual
: involvements and discrimination.  Grave concern was raised by
: evidence indicating a long series of sexual involvements between
: Prof Bowdler and her female students.  Professor Bowdler had
: secured grants and jobs for her girlfriends at the expense of
: other students.  Other women were victimised, at times for not
: accepting her advances, and at other times for having ended the
: relationship.
: 
: I will now quote from some of the evidence of those students. 
: One female studying Prehistory 200 stated --
: 
:     During a field trip, Professor Bowdler made sexual advances towards
:     me.  Being immature and flattered I became involved in a sexual
:     relationship with her.  Within one month I realised the predicament
:     I had placed myself in, but feared that if I left Professor Bowdler
:     she would somehow destroy my career in archaeology.  I believe that
:     over the past three years she has attempted to do this.  In 1986 I
:     was forced to leave my family and the University in order to get
:     away from Professor Bowdler."
: 
: Another letter from a student states --
: 
:     Professor Bowdler . ..  appears to treat at least some students as
:     a potential sexual resource."
: 
: Another PhD student wrote as follows -- 
: 
:     The propriety of hiring Dr O'Connor at all could be questioned
:     since it was generally believed that she has been professor
:     Bowdler's lover in the past.  It seemed to me there is still a
:     degree of attachment between them, despite Dr O'Connor's
:     marriage.
: 
: Dr O'Connor married Peter Veth, who ran the Centre for
: Prehistory in 1991.  The evidence continues --
: 
:     One of the most unpleasant aspects of Professor Bowdler's apparent
:     preference for hiring her own students and/or women with whom she
:     is thought to have had sexual relations was that one began to
:     question the underling motives for every appointment.
: 
: Another student stated --
: 
:     Professor Bowdler is a predator who preys on young female
:     students.  It is an absolute disgrace that the University of
:     Western Australia employed such a person as well as allowing such
:     blatant power abuse to persist for nearly a decade. 
: 
: The majority of these statements have been made by young female
: students.  Another submission refers to a field trip to the
: Fitzgerald National Park involving 13 volunteers, most of whom
: were in their late teens or early twenties, and it states -- 
: 
:     [Bowdler] and her lover, an archaeology student, had a very audible
:     argument that began late one evening and continued upon about 5:00
:     am the next morning.  There was much screaming and wailing, and as
:     we were all in nearby tents nobody got any sleep.  Some people were
:     leaving for Perth that morning, an eight hour drive, and some
:     stayed on for further work.  Either way, a good night's sleep was
:     paramount to everyone's well-being.  I was alarmed that this
:     situation could arise, particularly when so many young people were
:     present.  I expected the head of department to provide a more
:     responsible attitude.   This incident made everyone feel
:     uncomfortable and left a bad taste.  No apology was ever
:     proffered.
: 
: That evidence was corroborated in other letters.  Further
: evidence was given by another student to the archaeology review
: as follows --
: 
:     During my Honours year Professor Bowdler became hostile towards me
:     and refused to speak to me unless absolutely necessary.  This was a
:     major problem as she was my supervisor.  The reasons for such
:     behaviour , according to my fellow students in the inner circle is
:     that I was not nice to C. Pocock, my ... fellow Honours student and
:     Professor Bowdler's lover.  . . . I was not alone in being rejected
:     as of the other three honours graduates from 1988 only C Pocock was
:     successful in obtaining work as a consultant as well as obtaining
:     regular work as a part-time research assistant for Professor
:     Bowdler.
: 
: The letter continues --
: 
:     Professor Bowdler's professional conduct is often wanting on field
:     trips.  One particular dramatic example that left all with an
:     unpleasant taste was on fieldwork one summer when 1st, 2nd and 3rd
:     years witnessed an ugly lover's dispute between Professor Sandra
:     Bowdler and C Pocock, using an innocent 1st year male student to
:     incite jealousy between the main antagonists.   In short, C Pocock
:     played with the genitals of a male 1st year student.  Professor
:     Bowdler and a few of the others seated away from the camp table
:     were aware of events occurring under the table.  Much screaming,
:     yelling, crying eventuated and continued through the night.  The
:     male student thought it was in his best interests not to return to
:     archaeology the following year.
: 
: That letter corroborates a previous letter that I read to
: members, in the event they think this sort of stuff is being
: dreamt up by people.
: 
: Hon Sam Piantadosi: Hands under the table. 
: 
: Hon Derrick Tomlinson: The problem is that that material has
: been around the university for a long time and while they dealt
: with Professor Bowdler it has not done anything to advance the
: case of Dr Rindos. 
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL: Exactly, and it is not clear whether the
: university has dealt sufficiently with Professor Bowdler.  The
: department of archaeology has been dissolved. 
: 
: Hon Derrick Tomlinson: It never was a department, it was a
: special sinecure established for her.
: 
: Hon Sam Piantadosi: Hands under the table. 
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL:  That does not surprise me.  She then went to
: work in the anthropology department.  However, I understand that
: she works at the opposite end of the university from the
: anthropology department. She is still on her original salary and
: retains most, if not all, of the benefits that she has received
: before this, and Dr Rindos has been most unceremoniously given
: the flick to solve a problem for management.
: 
: Hon Derrick Tomlinson: Even her right to call herself an
: archaeologist came into question. 
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL: That is true, and I am reluctant to jump to
: conclusions.  However, this same professor has a history of the
: same behaviour at the University of New England, where she was
: denied tenure, yet she came to the University of Western
: Australia and had a mini department set up for her benefit.  A
: final quote is a letter to Dr Rindos from a student while Dr
: Rindos was in the geography department in 1991.  A copy of this
: letter was sent to Professor Gale and to two other academics at
: the university.  It states -- 
: 
:     I contacted Ms D---- because, like myself, she is an
:     ex-student-girlfriend of Professor Bowdler and warned me at length
:     about possible hostilities from Professor Bowdler.
: 
: That is the sort of tyranny that was in place in this
: institution.  The review committee also indicated that male
: students were discriminated against, and there were fewer male
: students in that department. 
: 
: Hon Derrick Tomlinson: They did not go on any camps anyway. 
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL: Probably not.  The Vice Chancellor, Professor
: Gale, in discussions with me quite flippantly dismissed as
: consensual the succession of affairs with undergraduate students
: indulged in by Professor Bowdler.  I take a very different view.
:  I do not see any difference between the way doctors must treat
: their patients and university professors should treat their
: students. 
: 
: Hon Derrick Tomlinson: There have been celebrated cases of male
: professor being discharged from universities for the very same
: behaviour, though more of a heterosexual than a homosexual
: nature. 
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL: Hon Derrick Tomlinson raises an interesting
: point.  If this conduct had been indulged in by a male a the
: University of WA, there would have been a different result.   I
: am shocked that the vice chancellor believes that
: power-contaminated sexual relationships can be so casually
: dismissed as consensual. 
: 
: Hon E. J. Charlton: Does the member think that she did not want
: to do it personally, or do you think there is pressure in our
: society that one should not look sideways or criticise anything
: to do with these women in society, who seem to be able to do
: what they like?
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL:  I will not respond to that comment.  However,
: to condone such behaviour is to blame the student-victim.  The
: vice chancellor's attitude is unacceptable.  She owes an
: apology, at least to the parents of this State who have sent
: their sons and daughters to her care at that university.  She
: owes an apology to all feminists who hold that gender is no
: excuse for improper behaviour; and she owes an apology to the
: many students who have been sexually or otherwise victimised at
: the hands of a professor who is still in her employ.  
: 
: Hon Derrick Tomlinson interjected. 
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL: Exactly.  Hon Derrick Tomlinson has anticipated
: the next part of my comments.  I believe that Professor Bowdler
: has been protected by the vice chancellor. 
: 
: Hon E. J. Charlton: Just by the vice chancellor?
: 
: Hon MARK NEVILL: The vice chancellor has a fairly big hand in
: how the university is run.  Professor Bowdler has been
: effectively protected by the vice chancellor, for reasons which
: I do not know, but it is certainly against all of the proper
: advice which the vice chancellor has received. 
: 
: The next area is the one to which Hon Derrick Tomlinson alluded;
: that is academic freedom.   In that department there was
: certainly intellectual oppression.  There was also a lack of due
: process.  The review committee found that Professor Bowdler and
: her followers had instituted a reign of intellectual oppression,
: encouraging and participating in the public ridicule of students
: whose opinions were found politically, or otherwise,
: unacceptable to them.  I turn now to an attachment to to the
: letter of Dr Neville Burce and Professor Bernard Moulden, headed
: "Notes From an Analysis of a Survey of Archaeology Graduates." 
: They received 16 replies from a total of 24 gradates who had
: completed a major in archaeology.  The document states, under
: the heading "Quotes"-
: 
:     Active hostility ie refusal to receive work and pass/fail markings
:     without comment is very had to bear and impossible to address when
:     such a power imbalance exits.
: 
:     There were however, more insidious and widespread problems relating
:     to the freedom of thought, fairness of marking the involvement of
:     undergraduates in intra-departmental politics.  . . . 
: 
:     Animosity reflected . . . to many students and staff pervaded whole
:     course and thus made survival difficult and tainted anything
:     positive about the course.
: 
:     . . . Worst things about the course were witnessing some people's
:     humiliation and ostracism in lectures, tutorials and field
:     trips."
: 
:     . .. this oppressive behaviour is clearly unprofessional and not
:     acceptable in the university community or indeed the wider social
:     community!
: 
:     At times lectures and courses were taking on the mantle of
:     propaganda where the ideas of others were not considered in an
:     analytical sense but ridiculed by defaming the individuals who
:     espoused any ideas incongruent to their own.
: 
: These are some examples of intellectual oppression which was
: occurring in that department; the lack of academic freedom which
: is essential for any department or faculty to operate
: effectively.  There was also a disgraceful lack of due process
: in the administrative dealings of the department.  Decisions
: relating to the allocation of academic and intellectual
: resources, were made to serve non-academic ends, and the process
: of administration became subverted to the ends of harassment and
: abuse.  A document which was sent to the review of archaeology
: states --
: 
:     Throughout the years of study I constantly witnessed other
:     students, staff, academics from UWA, Museum colleagues and others
:     being ridiculed, treated unfairly, or ostracised by Professor
:     Bowdler and her followers.
: 
: A letter from Professor Sylvia Hallam, the former head of the
: department, to the Vice Chancellor, Professor Gale, states --
: 
:     Scorn for views with which [Professor Bowdler] did not agree, often
:     delivered in a scathing manner, could reduce a student to a
:     quivering wreck.  Scorn is no substitute for reasoned presentation
:     of alternative views. 
: 
:     Scorn for academic values and scorn for people outside of small
:     inner coterie have replaced love of learning and respect for
:     individuals."
: 
: A document from another PhD student states --
: 
:     Professor Bowdler appeared to show extreme favouritism and
:     prejudice in her treatment of not only departmental members but
:     also colleagues and others in the community at large.  She
:     frequently expressed contempt for practically every other
:     archaeologist in Australia.  She had nothing good to say about
:     Syliva Hallam or Charles Amsden, indeed she positively boasted to
:     me that she was going to 'get rid' of both of them.  She also
:     boasted to me she had got herself appointed to every committee that
:     mattered in WA so that no Archaeology could be carried out of which
:     she did not approve.  It seemed to me that Dr Veth copied her
:     attitude when he ran the Centre of Prehistory.  In my hearing he
:     frequently expressed a desire to drive other consultancy firms out
:     of business.  It is doubtful if anyone should ever has that much
:     power.  Professor Bowdler's overt policy of criticism by character
:     assassination seemed to be copied by those departmental members who
:     wished to curry favour with her.
: 
: The next quote from my notes reads -- 
: 
: 
: ---------------------------------355392331204--

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