After Juliette Grimmett, former assistant director of interpersonal violence services, resigned from her position at the Women’s Center with a strong letter of resignation that was circulated widely on campus, it seems all the fuss is little more than a clash of personality-at least according to the University.
Grimmett spent five years working in the N.C. State Women’s Center, and Grimmett said this is the work she will do for the rest of her life-just not at N.C. State.
“I never thought I would ever resign from this position, but I had to because I literally exhausted every opportunity I had to make things better,” Grimmett wrote.
According to Grimmett, there were issues in the leadership of the Women’s Center ever since its new director, Ashley Simons-Rudolph, took her post in August of 2011.
Coming from six years of teaching courses in Women and Gender Studies for DELTA, N.C. State’s distance education program, and a program in Cairo, Egypt, the University hired Simons-Rudolph after conducting an international search to fill the position.
While Grimmett did not say Simons-Rudolph is not qualified to direct the Women’s Center, her letter of resignation uses words such as “disrespectful,” “manipulative,” “dishonest,” “unprofessional,” “bullying” and “unfair” to describe her former boss.
Joanne Woodard, vice provost for equity and diversity, issued an official statement on June 1 addressing the Women’s Center.
“The University’s administration reaffirms its commitment to the N.C. State Women’s Center and interpersonal violence services provided by the center since its inception,” Woodard wrote. “The Women’s Center will continue to provide IPV services to survivors of rape and sexual violence and education to the campus community about this important issue.”
According to Grimmett, this is an empty promise.
“This is a hollow affirmation for the following reasons: 1) In the last week of February, Ashley told me ‘Joanne and I have decided there will be a decreased commitment to IPV services in the Fall.’ Stating that IPV services has been disproportionately funded at the Women’s Center and that funds will be taken out of IPV to go to other Women’s Center programs. 2) Ashley and Joanne stopped the submission of the $300,000 Department of Justice grant that would have provided another full-time advocate for survivors on campus (which we need as about 90 survivors of IPV report to the Women’s Center each year), as well as other services for IPV awareness and education. And 3) They have demoted the IPV position at the Women’s Center from Assistant Director to Coordinator,” Grimmett said.
Grimmett’s side of the story goes into far more detail than the University response, and she isn’t the only one filling in the lines.
“From the beginning, once I noticed it was a pattern of behavior, I really tried to talk to [Ashley Simons-Rudolph] about concerns and have conversations with her,” Grimmett said. “Every time I would try to have a conversation, any disagreement would not be OK, whether big or small. When something was not in line with Ashley’s view, there was a consequence. I learned that I didn’t feel safe just meeting with her. There was no communication happening; she was talking over me.”
Grimmett said this went on for nine months, during which she was committed to making things better.
“I love my job and I really wanted to do it the right way and follow all the appropriate steps,” Grimmett said.
While Grimmett was on maternity leave, the rest of the IPV team was filling in for her, counseling survivors and advocating for IPV services in the office.
Caitlin Post, a former survivor advocate at the center, recently relocated to New Jersey because she was fired from her position at the Women’s Center shortly after addressing concerns about Simons-Rudolph with HR.
“I’d been witnessing her being very unbalanced and unpredictable in her moods,” Post said. “She was pretty unethical about dealing with students, especially in dealing with survivor support.”
According to Post, she was asked to leave for the day upon Simons-Rudolph finding out she had gone to complain. Just a few days later, she said she was fired without reason.
“They’re slandering my name and fabricating things that never occurred,” Post said. “There were two other people in the office the whole time I was being fired.”
As an N.C. State alum, Post wishes the Women’s Center well, though she said she is unhappy with its current state.
“The things that the Women’s Center stands for are being misrepresent by Ashley. There are students who don’t feel comfortable there anymore, and that was their only place to go and be safe,” Post said.
Abigail Conley, former graduate assistant for interpersonal violence, raised similar concerns.
“My time at the Women’s Center was equally the worst and best work experience I have had to date,” Conley said. ”It makes me so sad to know how much hard work has been erased by the decision not to reapply for the Department of Justice funding that supported The Movement, the RSVP hotline, my advocate position, Caitlin’s position, outreach with Interact and many other survivor services. I fully support Juliette [Grimmett] and hope for the sake of the remaining staff that finally somebody listens to our experiences of bullying and retaliation.”
Simons-Rudolph said she could not comment on a personnel matter, but she said the atmosphere among the staff is “wonderful.”
“I take every opportunity I can to publicly praise my colleagues,” Simons-Rudolph said. “We had a staff meeting this week, and we had a lot of fun together.”
Simons-Rudolph confirmed that Grimmett handed in her letter of resignation the day she returned from a three-month maternity leave.
“We wish her the very best in her endeavors,” Simons-Rudolph said. “The work of the Center continues and we’re very focused on promoting gender equity on campus. We will continue the good work of which she was a part of, we are open, we continue to provide those same services, we are looking to increase services provided to interpersonal violence survivors, continuing The Movement, and moving forward.”
As for the allegations of inappropriate leadership and interaction with her staff, Simons-Rudolph said she had nothing to hide.
“We think it’s important to model positive relationships with each other and show that to our students,” Simons-Rudolph said. “That work is really bigger than any one person.”
