Professor says when she faced sexual harassment, WSU went after her, not the problem

One of Wichita State University’s faculty members said she has faced harassment, discrimination and a hostile work environment at the school for the past seven years.

She said she told her supervisors. She wrote letters to the university president. She filed a Title IX complaint.

After exhausting all university avenues, she said things only got worse. So now she’s going public.

Karen Countryman-Roswurm, founder and executive director of Wichita State’s Center for Combating Human Trafficking, shared her story Friday morning at the center’s annual anti-trafficking conference, titled “Be the Bombshell.”

The talk featured guest speaker Gretchen Carlson, a former Fox News anchor who sued former chairman and CEO of Fox News for sexual harassment in 2016. Carlson is the subject of the film “Bombshell,” based on Carlson’s experiences at Fox.

But before Carlson took the stage, Countryman-Roswurm, an associate professor in the school of social work, had her own bombshell to drop.

Countryman-Roswurm said she has been subjected to racist comments about her Native American heritage and false rumors insinuating that she traded sexual favors for advancement at Wichita State.

“Perpetrator has spread rumors that I, an anti-trafficking expert, in essence, prostituted myself in order to ‘get a center,’” she told 75 people, mostly women, attending the conference at Wichita State.

When she tried to get help, she said, the university tried to make it go away.

The university declined to comment on Countryman-Roswurm’s speech.

“Wichita State University is committed to the elimination of misconduct including all forms of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation within the University community,” Wichita State spokesman Joe Kleinsasser said in a written statement on behalf of the university.

“The University maintains a system of resources to prevent and address allegations of misconduct. While the University does not directly comment on individual complaints or investigations, it is committed to following its policies and procedures in addressing any complaints raised by University students or employees,” he wrote.

Countryman-Roswurm described her work environment as “socially and psychologically unsafe.”

“I have been required to meet alone with men where I have been yelled at and told things like: ‘You should be very, very happy with what you get paid as a woman!’”

She said when she sought assistance and pursued a resolution internally she “experienced retaliation that has significantly impacted my ability to fully participate in, enjoy, benefit from, and contribute to my chosen profession at WSU,” she said.

Countryman-Roswurm’s Center for Combating Human Trafficking, which she started in 2012, provides training and education about human trafficking and helps survivors put their lives on a positive track, working to intervene in cases of abuse, exploitation and human trafficking.

That’s part of why she said it was time to come forward with her story, prompted in part by a colleague who told her it was time for her to fight for herself:

“Karen, every day you fight for others. But now you yourself are getting abused. It’s well past time you fight for yourself,” she said in her speech.

Countryman-Roswurm did not name names, referring to those she accused of harassment and being enablers collectively as “Perpetrator.” But she said the problem at Wichita State is systemic and that she knows of others who have gone through similar struggles.

When she reported the harassment to her supervisors, she said they told her:

“Don’t formally report” and “it will derail your tenure and promotion process.”

“Nobody likes a whistle blower,” one of them said, according to Countryman-Roswurm.

She received tenure in April 2018 and filed a formal complaint with the school in December 2018.

She said it was implied that if she did not stop pursuing the complaint, her contract would not be upheld. Instead of protecting her, university officials tried to get her to sign a non-disclosure agreement that would bar her from talking about her situation, she said.

“Consequently, without intervention, Perpetrator has become increasingly empowered to cause further harm to not only me and the Center for Combating Human Trafficking, but students,” she said.

The school stopped paying her salary for her duties at the center, Countryman-Roswurm said, instead telling her to find her own funding.

“In fact, strangely resembling an interaction with a pimp, I have been told that while I am expected to continue my shared appointment as associate professor and executive director at the Center for Combating Human Trafficking, for the center portion of my position, the portion that requires the most significant amount of my time and effort on behalf of the university, I am to be self sufficient.”

“Some may ask, ‘But Karen, is it really that bad? You’ve been through worse stuff, neglect and abuses in your childhood, the suicide of your mother, the violence and exploitation that occurred to you as an adolescent in the system and on the streets.’

“And I would answer, ‘Yes, it is that bad.’”

“To me, after years of being in a place of my own safety and able to assist others in obtaining safety, too, it feels even worse.”

She said when women, whether on the streets or in professional settings, “can’t seem to get assistance with the abuses we are facing, we feel: Stuck. Silenced. Alone. Desperate.”

Countryman-Roswurm said she questions how she can in good faith recruit vulnerable students to Wichita State if she has to worry about her own safety.

“If I, an educated, well-spoken and internationally-recognized expert and advocate, have been unsuccessful in obtaining safety at WSU, how will a marginalized student be treated? How will the survivor in our program, who was trafficked by her parents and speaks English as a second language, ever stand a chance?”

This story was originally published February 2, 2020 at 7:55 AM.