By Ellen J. Staurowsky, Senior Contributor & Professor, Sport Management, Drexel University, ejs95@drexel.edu
In Jaclyn Piscitelli v. University of Saint Joseph, a former female associate athletic director alleges she was fired after speaking up about the sexist behavior of male coaches and the failures of school administrators to address that behavior.
Background
In October of 2015, Jaclyn (Jackie) Piscitelli received an opportunity to pursue what she described as her dream job when she was appointed as the associate athletic director at the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) (Newton, 2018; Piscitelli v. University of Saint Joseph, 2019; Staff, 2018). An announcement of her appointment issued by USJ’s athletic department indicated she was tasked with fulfilling responsibilities as the senior woman administrator (SWA) and compliance officer, as well as overseeing USJ’s recreation and intramural sports programs. Prior to her appointment in the athletic department, Piscitelli had served USJ for more than four years as the assistant registrar (Staff, 2015).
At the time of Piscitelli’s appointment as associate athletic director, USJ was undergoing significant institutional change. With new president Dr. Rhona Free at the helm, a university founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1932 and operated as a women’s college for 86 years made the strategic decision to admit men into its 2018-2019 undergraduate class. The move was designed to address a downturn in enrollment and stabilize the university’s finances (Newton, 2018; Raus, 2019).
According to an article in the Hartford Business Journal, men’s athletics was the centerpiece of the enrollment strategy adopted to transform USJ into a coeducational institution through the addition of five men’s teams, the hiring of new male coaches, and a $16 million investment in a new basketball arena (Cooper, 2018b). Additionally, the school affiliated with NCAA Division III received press attention after signing former University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach, Jim Calhoun, to build USJ’s men’s basketball team. A high-powered coach who some have called legendary, Calhoun won three NCAA Division I men’s basketball titles and was a Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (Cooper, 2018a). In the fall of 2018, 60% of the new male matriculants at USJ were athletes (Cooper, 2018b).
A further transition issue that was occurring in the USJ athletic department during this period of time was the pending retirement of the athletic director who supervised Piscitelli, Bill Cardarelli (“University of Saint Joseph names new athletic director”, 2019). After 26 years of service in his role of athletic director, Cardarelli was scheduled to assume a new position at the University as the inaugural director of internships and sport studies in a freshly created academic program in sport management, housed in the department of business administration (“University of Saint Joseph names…”, 2019). The creation of this major was also part of the University’s strategic plan to increase enrollment (Newton, 2017).
Allegations of a Sexist, Hostile Work Environment & Retaliation
In her complaint, Piscitelli alleges that there was a palpable shift in the climate in which she worked following the hiring of Coach Calhoun and his assistant, Glen Miller (a basketball coach who had previously worked for Calhoun at the University of Connecticut). With their hiring, Piscitelli portrays the athletic department “as a male-dominated hostile work environment” that was “disdainful toward women and where women were treated as second class citizens” (Piscitelli v. University of Saint Joseph, 2019, p. 3-4). She further asserts that her similarly situated male colleagues were included in activities that she was excluded from, were treated more favorably than she was, and were accorded benefits not made available to her.
Piscitelli details a series of encounters with her male colleagues that she experienced as harassing and demeaning, among them Coach Calhoun’s request for her to unlock his office door for him when he could have easily done it himself as well as commentary from Calhoun and Miller about her demeanor and physical attractiveness. On one occasion, Piscitelli describes a circumstance where Calhoun asked her to clean up a mess he made after stepping on a number of spilled coffee pods and scattering grounds underfoot, with Calhoun allegedly telling Piscitelli that this kind of chore was something that his wife would have taken care of. Another time, she claims that Calhoun expressed frustration with a female administrative assistant who sought clarification on assignments given to her by him. Piscitelli recalls Calhoun referring to the woman as a “b..tch” and remarking that he was contemplating going to the president to have her fired.
She further reports that she was required to share her office with two newly hired male coaches despite her expressed concerns about the lack of privacy and the need for confidential communications pertaining to compliance matters. Piscitelli describes department meetings where Miller regularly interrupted her and attempted to undermine her efforts to successfully do her job and tensions with Miller arising from his dismissive attitude towards her. And she points to the hiring of new staff in sports information and the rejection of her requests for new staff as emblematic of a different standard of support given to her male colleagues. Regular complaints to her supervisors, Athletic Director Cardarelli, and Vice President for Student Affairs, Ken Bedini, were met with dismissiveness or simply ignored. Piscitelli also claims that she reported Title IX issues that arose due to the athletic director’s failure to execute his responsibilities of oversight of that area to the director of human resources who allegedly indicated that there was nothing she could do to address the problem (Piscitelli v. University of Saint Joseph, 2019).
Retaliation Under Title IX
According to Piscitelli, her efforts to inform superiors about the unfair treatment she was subjected to as a result of her gender and other Title IX issues went unheeded and uninvestigated. Such efforts fall under Title IX’s conception of protected activity. Her termination she alleges was a retaliatory act designed to silence her and to avoid dealing with the underlying discrimination that prompted her complaints to USJ officials. As a result, she has suffered loss of fruitful employment, economic harm, and emotional distress (Piscitelli v. University of Saint Joseph, 2019).
Statements from the University and Coach Calhoun
After the lawsuit was filed in October of 2019, the University issued a statement that read as follows: “We have received and are reviewing the lawsuit. The University of Saint Joseph takes compliance with all matters relating to Title IX very seriously. The University does not comment on pending litigation” (Impelli, 2019).
Initially, it appeared that Coach Calhoun was going to follow the University’s position of not commenting but within a few days he issued his own eight-paragraph denial (Feis, 2019; Impelli, 2019). Expressing sadness and anger at the headlines generated from the lawsuit and the accusations leveled at him, Calhoun cited his support for women leaders and the opportunities he had to work for two women college presidents and the new athletic director at USJ, who is a woman. Declaring his innocence, Calhoun (2019) stated “I firmly and unequivocally, at no time, knowingly treated any woman unfairly because of her gender. In addition, let me be clear, I have never treated any woman inappropriately”.
Selected Questions Moving Forward
As the response from the University of Saint Joseph awaits in early January of 2020, there are a number of questions to consider, some of them legal and others historical. First, as a case study, is this case describing what has historically happened in athletic departments when men’s athletic programs became the focal point and women sport leaders were dismissed and disparaged (Staurowsky, 2016)? The allegations paint a picture suggesting that history is repeating itself but unlike in the past where women leaders were often displaced when athletic programs integrated, the USJ ultimately hired a female to take over for the outgoing athletic director (“University of Saint Joseph names new athletic director”, 2019).
Second, what were the understandings of all involved about the role of the senior woman administrator (SWA) Piscitelli held at the University of Saint Joseph at the time she was working there? The NCAA encourages but does not require athletic departments to designate a person to serve in the role of the senior woman administrator. According to Wilson (2017), the term itself is a “designation” and not a “position”. This broad construction of the role, and the title itself, has led to considerable confusion in terms of what the person holding that title does and what her obligations are. In a 2017 study conducted by the NCAA, there was a dramatic disconnection between what athletic directors and SWAs understood the term to mean (Wilson, 2017). Could such a disconnection have existed at USJ which contributed to the climate in which Piscitelli worked?
Third, who are the similarly situated male colleagues Piscitelli refers to in her complaint? She was an administrator with multiple areas of responsibility (compliance, recreation and intramural sports, and service as the SWA). Was she similarly situated to the male sports information director and the other male coaches?
Fourth, whether she is able to establish that she was similarly situated to her male colleagues, what are the vulnerabilities that the University of Saint Joseph has if Title IX concerns were brought forward by an employee, there was no effort to investigate those complaints, and the employee was subsequently fired in order to silence her?
References
Calhoun, J. (2019). Statement in response to Piscitelli v. University of Saint Joseph. Retrieved https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Former-UConn-coach-Jim-Calhoun-responds-to-14517618.php. Also on file with author.
Cooper, J. (2018a, September 18). UCONN’s Calhoun tapped as Univ. of St. Joseph head coach. Hartford Business Journal. Retrieved from https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/uconns-calhoun-tapped-as-univ-of-st-joseph-head-coach
Cooper, J. (2018b, October 22). University of St. Joseph builds men’s athletics to diversify, boost enrollment. Hartford Business Journal. Retrieved from https://www.hartfordbusiness.com/article/university-of-st-joseph-builds-mens-athletics-program-to-diversify-boost-enrollment
Feis, A. (2019, October 9). Jim Calhoun, legendary UCONN basketball coach, accused of sex discrimination. New York Post. Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2019/10/09/jim-calhoun-legendary-uconn-basketball-coach-accused-of-sexual-discrimination/
Impelli, M. (2019, October 9). Hall of Fame coach Jim Calhoun turned University of St. Joseph athletic department into a ‘boys club’, lawsuit claims. Newsweek.com. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/hall-fame-coach-jim-calhoun-turned-university-st-joseph-athletic-department-boys-club-1464242
Newton, R. (2017, June 14). University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford makes historic change to admissions policy. We-ha.com. Retrieved from https://we-ha.com/university-saint-joseph-west-hartford-makes-historic-change-admissions-policy/
O’Neill, T. (2019, October 12). Former UCONN coach Jim Calhoun denies sex-bias lawsuit allegations. CTPost.com. Retrieved from https://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Former-UConn-coach-Jim-Calhoun-responds-to-14517618.php
Jaclyn Piscitelli v. University of Saint Joseph. (2019). United States District Court District of Connecticut. Case No. 3:19-cv-01589-KAD. Retrieved from https://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/upload/2019/10/piscitelli-saint-joseph-lawsuit-20191009.pdf
Raus, A. (2019, May 13). University of St. Joseph sees success during first year with male undergraduate students. Fox61.com. Retrieved from https://fox61.com/2019/05/12/university-of-st-joseph-sees-success-during-first-year-with-male-undergraduate-students/
Staff. (2015, December 8). Piscitelli named associate athletic director. Press release. Retrieved from http://www.usjbluejays.com/genrel/2015-16/jp1208
Staurowsky, E. J. (2016). Women in sport: Continuing a journey from liberation to celebration. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
“University of Saint Joseph names new athletic director.” (2019, April 26). We-ha.com. Retrieved from https://we-ha.com/university-of-saint-joseph-names-new-athletic-director/
Wilson, A. (2017). Organization of the Senior Woman Administrator role. Indianapolis, IN: National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved from http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/2018SWA_17-NCAA-1984_InclusionsSWAReport-20180402.pdf
