Allegations Raise Concern On Ewu Faculty Standards

CHENEY, Spokane County - Students and faculty at Eastern Washington University are upset about an early retirement offer made to a sociology professor after two students accused him of sexual assault.

William Perdue was allowed to retire and the school issued a statement praising his academic achievements, even though one student accused him of raping her in his car and a second student accused him of attempted rape after Perdue gave her a ride home.

"This is telling victims, `Don't come forward because you won't get justice,' " said one of the alleged victims, who did not wish to be named.

Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser declined to press charges against Perdue because of the difficulties of proving the cases. Perdue contended the contact was by mutual consent.

Other recent incidents also have raised concerns about faculty standards. They include:

-- Geography professor Russell Boggs pleaded guilty in federal court last Wednesday to using his state-owned computer to download child pornography from the Internet. He resigned.

The prosecution came after the school found evidence of pornography, seized Boggs' computer and alerted federal authorities.

-- Visiting instructor James Ward resigned this spring amid allegations he sent slanderous mail questioning the sexuality and honesty of two students.

-- A government professor saw his wife arrested for violating her parole.

In the Perdue case, the Faculty Senate was preparing a case for firing the teacher when he reached the retirement deal with the administration.

"He violated a trust we have with the public and with each other," said Robert Morgenstern, chairman of the Faculty Senate. "Every one of us feel we've been betrayed." Perdue should have been forced to come before his colleagues and explain his actions, Morgenstern said.

Instead, Perdue will go on unpaid leave for the next two years and then become eligible for early retirement benefits when he reaches age 55. He is being allowed to buy health insurance through the school. Perdue declined comment on the case.

University President Mark Drummond said the settlement gets Perdue off campus and will get him off the state payroll earlier than a drawn-out dismissal case.

Drummond also said he is working to strengthen ethics standards at EWU and root out problem faculty.

In another highly-publicized case, Victoria Compton, wife of government professor James Wallace, was sent back to prison on an attempted murder conviction last spring. Compton is the former girlfriend of Hillside Strangler Kenneth Bianchi, who terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s when he killed 10 women. Compton was convicted of trying to strangle a cocktail waitress in Bellingham in 1980 to provide an alibi for Bianchi.

Wallace left his wife of 38 years and married Compton, apparently after they began writing to each other while she was in prison.

Law officers revoked her parole after they found pornographic murals painted by Compton hung on the walls of their home.