Piano Students at Utah State U. Endured Humiliation and Sexual Harassment, Report Says

Utah State U.

Piano students at Utah State University were psychologically abused and sexually harassed for more than a decade while the music department and Title IX office did little to help, according to a report released on Friday.

The piano program’s longtime coordinator, Gary Amano, has retired and is no longer employed by the university, Utah State’s president, Noelle E. Cockett, announced on Friday. The report, which recommended that Amano be fired and procedures strengthened to curb abuses in the piano program, was prepared by Alan L. Sullivan, a Salt Lake City lawyer.

It presented a scathing indictment of a program where four instructors were accused of assaulting or harassing students and men were repeatedly given more scholarship funding and better opportunities than women.

“For decades the Piano Program tolerated psychologically abusive faculty behavior — behavior that drove some students to leave the program without degrees, giving up the piano altogether, and other students to contend with abuse until they graduated,” the report said.

Much of the abuse was traced to Amano, described as a Juilliard-trained teacher who was recognized by many in his field as a “superb teacher of gifted students.” Many of his students have gone on to distinguished performing and academic careers, the report said. But many others were traumatized by an atmosphere in the program that they described as “toxic,” the report said.

While some students had no complaints about Amano, and some even “revere” him, “a significant number of current and former students complained to us about having been humiliated — or watching others being humiliated and belittled — in classes taught by him and other faculty,” the report said.

Amano, who led the piano program from the 1980s until August 2017, denied the accusations in an email to The Chronicle on Monday.

“If there was discrimination in my 40 years of building a highly visible piano program, it was against anyone who wasn’t doing their part in meeting the standards,” he wrote. “Gender had nothing to do with it.”

The report failed to consider the many women who thrived under his instruction, he said. “Serious incidents that involved other teachers were attributed to me and a really thorough investigation would have shown that I often wasn’t even involved,” he said. “Instead every teacher was linked together amid charges that were not true.”

The university’s interim piano program coordinator, R. Dennis Hirst, was also removed from his role, Cockett announced. The report found that he enabled or failed to take action against Amano’s discriminatory treatment of students.

Complaints on Social Media

Utah State officials ordered the outside review after several former students complained on social media in February about harassment, bullying, and assault by current and former faculty members.

The law firm handling the investigation interviewed 60 current and former students, faculty members, and other employees. It identified eight students who had complained to administrators in the music department. More echoed their complaints on social media.

Between 1994 and 2012, it said, both female and male students or their parents complained to university officials about sexual harassment by two current and two former faculty members in the music department. Some of the complaints involved alleged sexual assault and others, unwelcome sexual advances and sexual relations between faculty members and students they taught.

One former faculty member, who is not named in the report, admitted to having sexual relations with at least three female students in the late 2000s but insisted they were all consensual.

Whether consensual or not, the incidents revealed “a disturbing pattern” of university officials looking the other way when relationships between students and faculty members were “common knowledge,” the report concluded.

The university’s policies prohibit amorous relationships between faculty members and students they teach or supervise.

During an investigation into one complaint, Amano sent an email to the Title IX office defending the instructor, the report said. Amano said he’d been aware of “this whole affair” for years and knew that the instructor had been sexually involved with other students. Amano’s solution had been to transfer the students to other classes so the offending instructor wouldn’t be teaching them. Amano also criticized the student for raising the issue in her Title IX complaint and questioned her motive for doing so, the report said.

Because of concerns that he might retaliate against the student, the Title IX office ordered him to have no contact with her during the investigation, the report noted.

The piano program, the report said, has discriminated against women for more than a decade. Amano told both male and female students that men were generally better pianists and should be given more performing opportunities. Between 2009 and 2017, female students received 41 cents for each scholarship dollar awarded to male students, the report found.

Faculty members, including Amano, became impatient and caustic with students when they didn’t grasp concepts or meet expectations that were never clearly explained in the first place, the report said.

“The training of elite piano performers undoubtedly must be rigorous and highly disciplined,” the report noted. “But we do not believe there is any excuse for the humiliating treatment that some students experienced.”

The program has made significant strides since August 2017, when Amano began a sabbatical, in addressing gender discrimination in the department, the report said.

It suggested a number of steps for the university to take, including developing standards for stricter reviews of discrimination and harassment complaints by faculty members.

In a news briefing on Friday, Cockett said Utah State would make leadership changes in its Title IX office and that a new task force would investigate gender discrimination campuswide.

“Step 1 in moving forward is standing up and admitting that we at Utah State made mistakes in the way we handled issues of abuse, of mistreatment of students, and even of instances of sexual assault,” she said.

“Step 2 is taking action to ensure that we correct those mistakes and that we put in place policies and procedures to protect the health and well-being of our students.”

Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.