[ad_1]
UCD President Professor Andrew Deeks has confirmed that he contacted Professor and broadcaster Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin on Sunday night, to personally apologize for the harassment and abuse he suffered at the university for two years.
In The Irish Times on Saturday, Dr Ní Shúilleabháin revealed how she had been subjected to regular harassment by a university professor, Hans-Benjamin Braun, over a period of two years after she first reported the problem to women. authorities in Belfield.
In a statement Sunday, UCD President Andrew Deeks apologized to Dr. Ní Shúilleabháin and other colleagues and students who had suffered similar experiences at the university.
However, on Sunday night, Dr. Ní Shúilleabháin tweeted: “I am very surprised to read about an apology from UCD President Andrew Deeks as I have not received one or any communication from him on this matter.”
When contacted, a UCD spokeswoman said: “Professor Deeks did not want to contact Dr. Ní Shuilleabháin amidst the media attention and intended to speak with her personally after the weekend.
“Her focus was on expressing her deep regret for what had happened to her and her determination to make changes to address bullying in all its forms in the university setting. Since then he has been in contact with Dr. Ní Shúilleabháin ”.
Previously, the National Council of Women welcomed the plans of the Minister of Continuing and Higher Education, Simon Harris, to adopt a “zero tolerance approach” to sexual violence and harassment in tertiary institutions.
NWC Director Orla O’Connor said Harris’s recent instruction to all universities and other colleges to come up with an action plan to address the problem on their campuses, which will be overseen by the Higher Education Authority, was ” very positive “development.
In Saturday’s Irish Times article, Dr Ni Shúilleabháin recounted how Braun would regularly report to her office at UCD, asking her out, making persistent phone calls and, in one incident, following her to a hotel in Cork where she was housed.
Braun (58), who worked at UCD until 2019, received a court order in late 2019 that prohibited him from contacting her for five years after she reported the matter to gardaí.
In his statement, Professor Deeks said: “Bullying, harassment, sexual harassment or sexual misconduct have no place at UCD and we are already working to strengthen our current policies with a number of measures.”
The university will adopt “a core procedural change” in the future by giving it the option to investigate allegations of sexual harassment without a formal complaint being filed, he said.
Other measures include a new concept of disclosure on sexual harassment and misconduct, as well as clarifying the relationship between formal and informal internal complaints and complaints against gardaí.
The UCD president said he had no doubt that it had been a very difficult personal decision for Dr. Ní Shúilleabháin to present her story.
[ad_2]