UWI’s $14-million battle

The University of the West Indies (UWI) last week launched its revamped sexual harassment policy, which it said will add a total of $14 million to its salary bill to battle a scourge at least four alleged victims believe is beyond control.

In fact, at least one alleged victim last week branded the revamped policy as a grand “waste of time and money” – a potentially useful guide for inter-student allegations, but not for those more lasting cases involving sexual harassment of staff members by high-ranking officials, who allegedly defend each other when reports are made.

Essentially, the revamped policy includes several steps at which both a complainant and a respondent are allowed psychosocial support and mediation, according to Dr Karen Carpenter, senior lecturer and head of the Institute of Gender and Development Studies at Mona and lead creator of the policy.

UWI Mona Principal Professor Densil Williams, during his address last Tuesday, explained: “We now have to have a sexual harassment coordinator. And we now have to have a kind of portfolio of work that is going to ensure that we stick to the policy, that we make sure all complaints are properly investigated.”

He said the “added $14 million to our salary bill, some people would say, wow, that’s a huge cost. But there [are] 14 million reasons why we must do it”.

Williams’ address was met with hushed criticisms from females in the audience, who later shared stories of sexual harassment at the 76-year-old university.

Three of the four women were deathly fearful of speaking on the matter with The Sunday Gleaner, terrified that, if identified, they would suffer professional sabotage – even though they said they had already faced levels of victimisation after declining advances by their superiors.

For others, speaking out on the matter makes no sense as nothing will come of it, they argued, citing other cases that have been “swept under the carpet”. With that conviction, and the fact that they are still employed at the university, they have shied away from reporting the incidents.

Last week, The Sunday Gleaner obtained a set of WhatsApp messages seemingly implicating a senior UWI lecturer in sexual harassment claims. This is the second set of such messages obtained since the start of this year. The first also implicated another senior department member, who the university officially launched an investigation against.

HIGH-RANKING OFFICIAL

In the latest batch of messages to the alleged victim, however, the high-ranking official openly confessed to not recommending a particular person for promotion after she reported him for sexual harassment.

In other messages, the department leader repeatedly solicited sexual favours from another victim and her coworkers, noting that he “dreamt that you spat in my face and slapped me a box ... and get a girl to sit on my face.”

In other messages, he asked to be urinated on, to which the female complainant repeatedly responded that she was not interested.

“I knew the answer,” the academician continued. “Can only hope.”

“This person was a senior in the department. We were colleagues, like friends over the years. This was always his line of argument,” the woman told The Sunday Gleaner, noting that she is fearful of reporting the matter to the administration.

“We know the type of person that he is, and we tolerated him for a time until we didn’t,” she said.

For her, the last straw was when he called another female into his office and in her presence, dropped his pants and ordered the other woman to flog him.

Some women do not mind the attention and often financial benefits that come with such arrangements, she claimed, but others like her, who decline the advances, are met with severe resistance in their professional lives afterwards.

“I’ve had reduced contracts, reduced benefits, and you have people who are much less qualified who are getting promotions. Verbally, he has told me over the years that that is because I’m not giving up whatever (sex),” she noted, adding that she has worked under his watch for many years.

She is convinced nothing would come from her reports as was the case with those made by another female of the department about the same man.

“She has barely been in the department since then,” she said.

According to Carpenter, the new policy dovetails with existing disciplinary procedures outlined in the 2016 version, and victims are assured that investigations will be completed within a month after their reports. Those matters in train should also be wrapped up in another month. She pointed to several confidential outlets and procedures, which she said are aimed at reducing fear stemming from the seniority of the accused persons.

“Even the disciplinary committee; we have stipulated who can sit on it. So it is easy to eliminate someone who is accused who may hold high power; and easier to include a person who is trained in gender, trained in the policy, and trained in law.”

RAISED PUBLIC ALARM

Carpenter’s assurances came as empty promises for one lecturer regarded as “brave” by her aggrieved colleagues. The lecturer in January raised public alarm regarding lengthy delays of her sexual harassment claims made more than a year ago against her boss, a senior member of a department in which she works.

The academician outlined allegations of inappropriate texting, professional intimidation, and claims of the accused barging into the female bathroom while the victim was inside on two occasions.

There is also an ongoing investigation into allegations of professional sabotage following the alleged victim’s report of the incident to the authorities.

But even after that Sunday Gleaner report in January, and even after reassurance from The UWI that a disciplinary hearing was under way, the complainant said last week that only one meeting has been held since and the case has still not come to any meaningful conclusion.

Last week, both Mona Campus Registrar Dr Donovan Stanberry and UWI Registrar Dr Maurice Smith declined to respond to a Sunday Gleaner request to provide an update on the case, the employment status of the parties involved, and efforts to relocate the academic’s operation.

Sexual harassment allegations involving high-ranking officials are directly referred to the UWI Regional Headquarters for adjudication; however, Smith said: “The matter is actively before the university, and as such, I am unable to comment any further.”

corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com