GAINESVILLE, Fla. – When former University of Florida deputy Title IX coordinator Chris Loschiavo was fired in 2016, the university initially justified his termination by claiming conflict of interest.
This rationale was, as it turns out, somewhat less than half the story.
The conflict in question stemmed from a case in which a woman accused Florida football player Antonio Callaway of sexual assault. An attorney representing the woman who filed the complaint sat on the board of a higher-education management organization which was, in turn, part of an umbrella organization for which Loschiavo had performed some consulting work.
As conflicts of interest go, Loschiavo’s seemed to be on the indirect side of things, so it’s not terribly surprising to hear there’s more to the story.
What I do find a bit surprising, though, is just how incredibly dumb the real reason for Loschiavo’s termination was: He got caught buying porn using a PayPal account associated with his work email account.
Let this sink in for a moment: A guy whose job involved mediating complaints of sexual assault, sexual harassment and other very sensitive matters involving allegations of sexual misconduct used his work email address to purchase porn.
Among other things, getting fired for buying porn in the age of tube sites and ubiquitous free porn requires being a special kind of stupid.
As much as those of us who earn our living selling pornography might hate to acknowledge it, the simple fact is we live in an age when just about any kind of porn, in just about any genre, is readily available for free on the web.
As fate would have it, Loschiavo’s indiscretions resulted not just in his firing, but the firing of his former supervisor, Jen Day Shaw, as well. And what was Shaw’s offense? In recommending Loschiavo to Florida Polytechnic, she wasn’t exactly forthcoming about her former underling’s record, or the reason for his termination.
“Fantastic. Incredibly knowledgeable. Amazing work ethic. Strategic. Great collaboration. My very highest endorsement!!!” she wrote in recommending Loschiavo. “Hope you get him. He will be a tremendous help to you as you continue to create Florida Poly.”
Clearly, in addition to subjects and verbs, Day Shaw omitted from her recommendation other words that might have helped round out her description of Loschiavo.
A more accurate rendition might have read something like: Horny. Impatient. Entirely unaware of Pornhub’s existence. Dumb as a box of judgment-impaired rocks. Hope you get him — and then fire him a month later when you find a folder full of cyborg-bondage porn on his school-issued laptop.
Another item to place in the “unsurprising” column: As soon as Florida Polytechnic learned of the true reason for Loschiavo’s firing, they kicked him to the curb faster than you can say Advance Quantitative Methods.
“The University became aware of issues related to pornography during his employment at UF on the afternoon of May 18,” Florida Polytechnic spokeswoman Maggie M. Mariucci said. “The next day, his employment was terminated for nondisclosure of information. We followed our hiring process which includes a Level II background check and reference checks. When we became aware that Mr. Loschiavo had withheld information, he was terminated the next day.”
As for Shaw, her firing was just as swift — and possibly even more well-received.
“The university will be a better place without Ms. Shaw,” said Amy Osteryoung of the law firm Johnson & Osteryoung, which has been a part of several Title IX cases involving Shaw and filed a complaint last year over her handling of the Callaway case. “We consider this to be step one in what we hope will be more steps to come. We have no further comment, although we will have in the future.”
For her sake, hopefully Shaw will receive a glowing recommendation from whoever serves as her superior. Maybe something like: Honest. Forthcoming. Maybe a little reluctant to confront negative facts about her employees. On bright side, isn’t at all bothered by the idea of subordinates watching a little cyborg-porn around the office.
