An employee of the Binghamton University athletics department has filed a complaint against two senior department officials, according to The New York Times.
The complaint, formally filed with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday, accuses Senior Associate Athletic Director Jason Siegel and Assistant Athletic Director of Development Chris Lewis of committing “egregious acts of sexual misconduct,” according to The Times.
According to multiple reports, Siegel strongly denied the charges on Wednesday night from Greensboro, N.C., where he has traveled with the men’s basketball team for its first round NCAA tournament matchup with Duke University.
There is “absolutely no basis to any of the allegations in the complaint,” Siegel told reporters.
Lewis has declined to comment on the allegations.
The University said it has not received notice of any complaint.
“We have neither received an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) complaint nor have we been advised that one is in process regarding this matter,” said Joseph Schultz, director of human resources for the University, in a statement issued through the communications department.
The Times story was written by Pete Thamel, who has previously written stories critical of Binghamton’s athletic department. BU athletics officials have expressed concern over the past stories that Thamel wrote, alleging he was writing an agenda.
The EEOC is a federal agency that aims to end employment discrimination. The agency also files suits on behalf of alleged victims of discrimination against employers.
The person who filed the complaint, Elizabeth Williams, is a fundraiser for the athletics department. According to The Times, Williams said she had been verbally abused by Siegel since she began her job in January. She began processing the complaint on March 5, The Times article said, and it was formally filed Tuesday, March 17.
Williams was hired by the BU Foundation in March 2008 as a regional director of major gifts. In January, she moved to athletics to help raise money for the department.
The harassment began on her first day of work, according to the report. Lewis allegedly told her to use her physical attributes to charm a potential donor.
The incidents continued one week later, when the three attended a dinner in New York City with major contributors, Williams told The Times. A donor began putting $100 bills on the table and told her to tell him to stop when there were enough there for her to sleep with him, she said in the Times article.
After this incident, Williams told The Times, Siegel and Lewis continued making lewd remarks, including speculating on the size of her breasts and suggesting that she strip for a donor who was planning a bachelor party.
Later that night, according to the Times article, Siegel groped her breast in an elevator just “to make sure it was up to standard.”
The next morning, Siegel allegedly said, “We’re all OK, right? Nothing happened last night.”
Then, Williams said in her complaint, in February she made a recommendation regarding work to Siegel and was told that she was “not hired to have opinions, but rather to look good and flirt with donors.”
According to The Times, Williams said she reported the incidents to University officials about a month ago.
“I saw a couple of top administrators, an ombudsman, a union representative, and they said, ‘I’ve seen people go through this before. It’s athletics. It doesn’t end well,’” Williams said in the Times article.
However, Williams told the Times that she was removed from her office after reporting the incidents, had the code for her voice mail changed and had her duties severely reduced.
No action has been taken against Siegel or Lewis, according to the report.
On Feb. 15, Williams and her attorney James A. Gregory met with Schultz and Valerie J. Hampton, the University’s director of affirmative action, The Times said.
“We brought the complaint to them and told them what’s happened,” Gregory told the Times. “As a result, she was removed from her duties and the harassers are still doing their duties. We haven’t seen any results of the investigation to date.”
According to the Times article, the EEOC has yet to review the complaint or determine the credibility of the allegations.