One of the seven Sangamon State University professors who initiated sexual harassment charges Nov. 15 against the university president and the Board of Regents said the whole situation is “very complicated.”

Pat Langley, who is a professor of women’s studies at SSU, said various students and faculty members came to her with complaints of sexual harassment against SSU President Durward Long. Langley said she sent out a letter to SSU employees two weeks ago which “recounted incidents that students and faculty gave me.”

The most widely-publicized incidents involving Long occurred Aug. 26 when Long allegedly made advances toward two female students at an SSU pigroast. Long later denied the allegations, saying his actions were a “family-like” hug of friendship.

The SSU News reported that Long offered to make personal apologies to the students involved in the Aug. 26 incident. Long also said there would be no retaliation made against anyone who files a sexual harassment complaint against him to an outside agency.

During a Nov. 15 public speech to SSU, Long said, as reported by the SSU News, “Many of us have been greeted by a hug or an arm around the shoulder by the opposite sex … and we have often responded with similar friendly actions without any motivation other than friendly reception. That is what occurred on the night of August 26.

Langley said that in October, one of the students involved in the Aug. 26 incident came to her with the student’s account of the evening’s events.

The sexual harassment charges also are against the Regents, because “they are responsible, under the law,” Langley said. The Regents are the university’s governing body, she said.

While Regents lawyer Carol Fines conducted an investigation of the allegations at SSU, students and faculty who were allegedly sexually harassed by Long met with Fines to give her their accounts of the incidents, Langley said.

She said the Regents did nothing about the results of Fine’s investigation, or at least not during a public session.

Long said in his letter, “I have been disciplined by myself in more ways than I have ever known, including the rigors of critical and unsparing self-examination.

“More importantly, I have been disciplined by the deep hurt of letting you and others down in not fulfilling your expectations and by the agony of the public embarrassment and disappointment to my family, the Board of Regents, and the University community.”