The University of St. Joseph responded in federal court in late January to a sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against men’s basketball coaches Jim Calhoun and Glen Miller.
The plaintiff in the case was ex-athletic department administrator Jaclyn Piscitelli, who alleged Calhoun and Miller directed inappropriate comments toward her, all the while creating a “boys club” environment with the St. Joseph athletic department.
The full story about the complaint was featured in Sports Litigation Alert Vol. 17, Iss. 1.
In its filing, the school countered that it “did not engage in any discriminatory practices with reckless indifference to [Piscitelli’s] rights.”
Furthermore, the school claimed it “exercised reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct any alleged discriminatory behavior, and (Piscitelli) failed to take advantage of the preventative and corrective opportunities offered by (St. Joseph) or to otherwise avoid her alleged harm.”
Piscitelli was fired as associate athletic director last June and replaced by Josh Ingham, the sports information director. In her lawsuit, she says she “was treated less favorably than Ingham” when both worked in the athletic department. She claims that the atmosphere in the department changed in 2018 when St. Joseph began admitting male students, in part due to the arrival of Calhoun and Miller.
Piscitelli’s suit accuses Calhoun, a Hall of Fame coach who won three national championships at UConn, of calling her “hot” and demanding that she clean up single-serve coffee “K-cups” he had spilled. She alleges that Miller made a number of inappropriate comments, “including criticizing her for not being cheerful or smiling enough” and saying he would “swipe left” if he came across her on a dating app.
In early January, St. Joseph president Rhona Free told the Hartford Courant that she believes the school treated Piscitelli fairly.
“Employees leave the university,” she said. “Sometimes they leave on their own. Sometimes they leave because it works best for the university. Sometimes individuals who leave the university afterward, for various reasons, will take an action that they feel is justified. But I’m confident that we treat everyone fairly, that Coach Calhoun has such a long history of working fairly with women that ultimately things will work out fine. It’s disappointing. But we understand that’s just a part of doing business.”
Free went on to praise Calhoun for how he has represented the school.
“He brings the values of the university,” she said. “He’s had a longtime commitment to philanthropy, all he’s done for communities in Hartford, for cancer research, and that’s really important to us. He has also demonstrated for a long time a commitment to promoting the well-being of his [players], while they’re student-athletes and afterward. He really has fit in well here.”
