The University of Massachusetts-Amherst continues to make progress in addressing issues raised by graduate students about sexual harassment, violence and assault.
In a statement posted on its website during July, the university announced initiatives in the 2018-19 academic year to address the issues, including better-defined policies, more training and continued dialogue.
“The conversation was initiated in large part due to the concerns raised by graduate students over the past year, but these are issues that really connect to everybody in the campus community,” UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski said.
Graduate Women in STEM, or GWIS, is largely responsible for the heightened awareness about sexual violence on campus. Those women graduate students in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields at UMass last September released a special issue of their quarterly magazine titled “Broken Silence” that offered personal accounts of sexual misconduct involving professors, as well as descriptions about fearing retaliation if the abuse was reported.
GWIS on Oct. 12 sponsored a town hall meeting at UMass to focus attention on its “Safe at Work” campaign and to provide a forum for community dialogue.
Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy appointed a 10-member task force in December to review campus services, policies and practices related to sexual misconduct directed at graduate students. Its work resulted in initiatives aimed at improved reporting of incidents, better awareness of behavioral expectations and “more robust training for faculty and graduate students.”
“There is a perception that people are very immune to consequences when they abuse their power and are engaged in sexual violence or harassment with their students,” said Joelle Labastide, a biophysics postdoctoral research fellow and founder and co-chair of GWIS. “The perception that these professors are very well protected and very untouchable is detrimental to a student’s willingness to report what has happened.”
Labastide, a member of the task force, added that she is optimistic about the progress made so far, particularly the willingness of administrators to participate in workshops and the town hall dialogue in October.
“We felt heard and respected in that conversation and we think more collaborations of that type will serve the university well. Conversations of that depth and nature with people on important topics, with people that can influence those things and make changes, is invaluable,” Labastide said. “I think we made huge strides together because of the openness of that communication and the frequency.”
Among the more challenging issues is the problem of professors accused of sexual assault who are hired by a different school with no record of their past misconduct. “You see professors moving from university to university on their academic merit, but with no consequences for their behavior,” Labastide said.” So you get this whisper network of students warning each other of particular people.”
The administration is investigating alternatives to a recommendation by the task force that background checks for new employees include a release of prior employment records. “One possible alternative we are exploring is to add a question to our standard application that asks whether the candidate has ever been disciplined for violating an employment policy,” Subbaswamy said. “Though this does not allow us to review personnel files, it does give us an opportunity to pause and ask additional questions should someone disclose a past violation of policy. … an individual found to have lied about a past violation would face disciplinary action up to and including discharge.”
UMass administrators also are considering a separate recommendation by the task force to link sexual harassment histories of faculty members to tenure and promotion decisions. “Prior to moving forward with this recommendation, the university is willing, in consultation with Human Resources and OEO (Office of Equal Opportunity) to evaluate the effectiveness of this suggested procedural change,” Subbaswamy said.
Administrators also recognize “the need for more transparency about campus incidents of sexual harassment,” Subbaswamy added. “Any procedural changes will be made within the limits of both federal and state privacy regulations, and, by the end of fall 2018, the Office of Equal Opportunity will develop reports that can be regularly shared regarding cases in the aggregate.”
We commend the women graduate students who stepped up to shine a light on the pervasive problem of sexual misconduct on campus. We believe that UMass administrators are sincere in their pledge to strengthen efforts aimed at identifying predators and supporting women who report harassment and violence.