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Last year, a professor who resigned from a gender equality group at the university told University College Dublin president Professor Andrew Deeks that he saw “no evidence of any commitment to take the necessary steps” to rid to the campus of physical and verbal sexual harassment.
Professor Kathleen James-Chakraborty resigned from UCD’s Gender Equality Action Group in October 2019, “because she was not satisfied with the implementation of the university’s policies on sexual harassment and discrimination.”
Last weekend, in an interview with The Irish Times, Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin described a two-year ordeal of harassment she faced while working at the university by Professor Hans-Benjamin Braun, who later faced a warrant for judicial prohibition.
On Wednesday, Minister of Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, announced his intention to appoint Dublin Rape Crisis Center Executive Director Noeline Blackwell as the UCD’s governing authority.
In an email to Professor Deeks last year, Professor James-Chakraborty, a US-born scholar, wrote: “There will be no meaningful commitment to gender equality until the policies are in place, and those who violate or avoid them Enforcing them face dire consequences. “He received no reply from Professor Deeks.
“If senior male teachers can assume there is no risk to their careers when they engage in physical and oral harassment, no student they teach is receiving an excellent education and no staff member they work with gets their legal right to a workplace free from such discrimination and harassment. There are many reasons to believe that women are being discriminated against in the hiring processes, and the law on maternity leave has certainly been violated on a regular basis, ”she stated in the email that was distributed to her colleagues.
‘Discouraged’
Saying that while her personal experience on the UCD campus has been positive, Professor James-Chakraborty said she was “disheartened that I can no longer see enough progress on the horizon and therefore cannot continue to represent UCD in this [gender equality] paper. I cannot bear the absence of real responsibility. UCD’s current approach to equity and diversity is undermining the careers of exactly those it is supposed to serve through time-consuming and in many cases just a facade. . . Changing this culture will require giving up male privilege, but I recommend it precisely as the way forward. “
Unhappy that she had not received a response from Professor Deeks, Professor James-Chakraborty said he left her with “the strong impression that he was happy with the status quo” at the university.
“Many highly engaged people, disproportionately female in their early career stages,” had taken time away from teaching and research to work “very hard” on gender equality issues on campus, to find out that they were “ really just a showcase, “he said. .
The UCD Gender Equality Action Group oversees the university’s gender equality work and oversees Athena SWAN applications made by the university. The Athena SWAN Charter recognizes good practices in higher education institutions on gender equality. In March 2017, UCD received the Athena SWAN Bronze Institutional Award for a period of three years.
Sorry
On Tuesday, Professor Deeks issued a “President’s Newsletter” by email to UCD staff addressing the longstanding harassment of Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin at the university. Professor Deeks wrote: “I am very saddened that one of our colleagues has experienced such traumatic events over an extended period, and on behalf of UCD, I have apologized to Aoibhinn and other colleagues and students who have suffered such experiences while under our control. watch out”.
Last night, UCD said that it had not been Dr. Deeks’s responsibility to answer to Professore James-Chakraborty, but instead that it was a role for the president of the gender equality group, Professor Orla Feely.
In her response last October, Professor Feely said she had been “disappointed” to learn of Professor James-Chakraborty’s decision to resign. She had been “a strong and consistent voice” in favor of gender equality and “we will miss her.”
Last night, Professor Feely told The Irish Times in a statement that UCD will publish a gender equality plan later this month to “allow all members of the UCD community to have confidence” that complaints will be dealt with in an appropriate manner. adequate.
“We are not yet where we want to be, but we are working hard to get there, and I am very grateful to everyone who is contributing to this effort,” stated Professor Feely.
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