Resented UCI Doctor Keeps Job

Ten months after campus officials ruled that his “racially offensive” remarks had created a hostile atmosphere for his staff, the chairman of UC Irvine’s orthopedic surgery department remains on the job.

Dr. Harry B. Skinner downplayed the matter in an interview this week, saying the complaints were instigated by a disgruntled employee who “riled up a lot of other people because she was going to get a negative performance evaluation.”

Skinner, 62, is another in a succession of UCI medical program leaders who have come under fire in the last year, leading in some cases to demotions and resignations.

In May 2005, four current and former staffers filed allegations of racial and sexual harassment against Skinner, according to a report by UCI’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. A copy of the report, with the accusers’ names removed, was obtained by The Times.

Many complaints were deemed insignificant or unfounded, but Skinner’s remarks about African Americans receiving favorable treatment because of affirmative action were labeled “racially motivated and offensive,” and a violation of UCI’s nondiscrimination policy.

Skinner conceded making most of the sex- and race-related comments attributed to him but said his words were misconstrued, the report said.

For example, he referred to a female employee as “Double D.” Some staffers interpreted the nickname as a reference to her bra size. Skinner said it was shorthand for her initials, D.D., according to the report.

UCI’s discrimination investigator, Gwen Thompson, labeled the nickname an “inappropriate sexual comment” but said it was an isolated incident and didn’t warrant a sanction.

Thompson was less forgiving toward Skinner’s remarks about African Americans, which several witnesses overheard during a four-year period, the report said. In one instance, Skinner said a black professor had been admitted to Princeton University because “they needed to fill their affirmative action quota.”

Skinner denied any racist motives, noting that he had hired the professor. But the investigator said that didn’t negate the insult. “I find that the respondent’s comments created a hostile, offensive and intimidating environment,” she wrote.

Under university policy, the possible penalties include counseling, education, demotion or dismissal.

Although UCI officials said they couldn’t discuss personnel matters, spokesman Tom Vasich said that “appropriate action was taken in this case.”

Two management experts said Skinner should have been removed from his chairmanship as soon as the report was issued in October.

Pamela Holland of Brody Communications management consultants, who has written and lectured on how to prevent hostile work environments, said Skinner’s comments conflicted with the values UCI lists on its website.

“You can have all the policies and mission statements in the world, but if you have people who are representing the institution who either minimize, condone or exhibit behavior that is contrary to what you say you stand for, you are guilty and you have totally compromised the integrity of the organization,” she said.

On July 19, Skinner announced that he would step down as department chairman in January but remain on the faculty. Skinner said his resignation from the chairmanship had nothing to do with the investigation but was a response to what he called UCI’s lack of support for the department.

Current and former employees The Times interviewed described Skinner as a talented physician with poor communication skills that occasionally veer into offensiveness.

The report told of an incident in which Skinner saw a UCI employee eating a banana in 2004 and joked about how “Jewish American Princesses” perform oral sex. The report called the banana incident inappropriate but isolated.

“Within minutes of meeting me, he was making anti-Semitic comments,” the former employee, now a medical student elsewhere, said in an interview.

Skinner has continued making questionable comments, according to a faculty member who spoke on condition of anonymity. A few weeks ago, he said, Skinner described a temporary secretary who is black as “double-A and I hope she can type.” “Double-A” is Skinner’s phrase for “affirmative action,” the professor said.

Skinner told The Times, “That’s something I used to say ... but in today’s politically correct society that is not an accepted term.”

Skinner said he had doubled the orthopedic surgery department’s staff size and raised its profile nationally. Two years ago, UCI Medical Center became the first hospital in the nation to receive special certification for its joint-replacement program.

Since Skinner’s announcement that he would remain on the faculty after stepping down as chairman in 2007, the department’s office manager has gone out on stress leave, citing his behavior, according to the same faculty member. Another administrative staffer resigned in disgust this year for the same reason, the faculty member said.

*

william.heisel@latimes.com

roy.rivenburg@latimes.com