Professor Accused of Sexual Harassment Resigns
So I was reading a few articles on sexual harassment, when I came across this article. It made me think about the story Oleanna, which we have to read for class. I found it interesting that Professor William Bender was not taken out of the system earlier, especially if he had so many complaints against him. The fact that they still let Professor Bender teach online classes, after the university found him guilty of sexual harassment, makes me wonder how concerned the University of Georgia really is about this matter. He was teaching online classes, but if a student did have a question, she/he could go into his office hours or they could talk using e-mails. So it is very possible that the sexual harassment could have continued, it just might have taken a different form. The fact that Professor Bender made the resignation himself makes me wonder, if he was just so sick of hearing about it or maybe his subconscious was eating away at him that he finally wanted it. Regardless, he won't be teaching this upcoming fall.
What Professor Bender did was wrong, but where do we draw the line when it comes to the student/professor relationship? How far is too far? Should the University of Georgia (or any university where this could be taken place at) be held accountable for not doing anything sooner? I think that this is something that many of us really don't think about because we associate (for the most part) this happening in the workplace.
What do you all think about this issue? And if your professor seemed to be making an advance on you, would you report it? Why or why not?
Here is the link if any of you are interested in reading the article:http://chronicle.com/news/article/3836/professor-accused-of-sexual-harassment-resigns?nb
What Professor Bender did was wrong, but where do we draw the line when it comes to the student/professor relationship? How far is too far? Should the University of Georgia (or any university where this could be taken place at) be held accountable for not doing anything sooner? I think that this is something that many of us really don't think about because we associate (for the most part) this happening in the workplace.
What do you all think about this issue? And if your professor seemed to be making an advance on you, would you report it? Why or why not?
Here is the link if any of you are interested in reading the article:http://chronicle.com/news/article/3836/professor-accused-of-sexual-harassment-resigns?nb
posted by Ashley at
11:32 AM
3 Comments:
I think it is absolutely bogus that this Professor Bender kept his teaching license at the University for two decades with sexual harassment allegations against him. I think it is very irresponsible of the University to let this go on for so long, and even currently. How could they let him still teach online courses? Wouldn’t this make the University liable for all of these charges and allegations? If I remember correctly an employer would be liable if the supervisor was negligent in hiring, supervision, monitoring, or the retention of the employee’s supervisor. It appears to me they were negligent in monitoring, and now they know about it about they have no made adequate changes to correct this problem, so if it were me, I would stop suing this professor and start suing the University.
I agree with heather. Sexual harassment cases should be taken very seriously and the fact that the University took no action proves their alterior motives. It seems the University was indeed negligent of the issue, but a better question is, Why?
I am not sure if Universities have a legal responsibility to selectively not submit in allegations such as this; however, it is certain that the University should be held fully accountable for letting the issue continue.
Strangely enough, I found myself in a sexual harassment situation with an IU professor last year. The professor had been known to give lower grades to female students so that they would come into complain and so then he could hit on them. I took a class and found at that my grade, along with other females' grades in the class, was substantially lower than I thought. I was really upset and went into his office hours to try to understand the situation. After speaking with him for awhile we sort of came up with a compromise. As I was leaving, the professor offered my some of the vodka that he was enjoying in his office. He also invited me to dinner saying that he would love to take me out to dinner once I was done being upset about the whole situation. I left feeling extremely awkward and I was really unsure what to do. Here was a professor that had behaved extremely inappropriately and further, appeared to have given me a lower grade to get me into his office.
So I had a decision to make: Do I tell or do I keep quite??
I called my parents and with the help of my friend, I decided to report the situation and went to speak to the dean of the business school. I thought the university took the claim very seriously and handled it extremely well. The university did let him continue to teach but he did suffer severe repercussions (his chair position was taken away among other things). If IU did not do anything in the situation however, I cannot imagine how upset I would be. I do not think that the university had any control over the situation but they did have control on how they handled it. Luckily, I do think they made enough efforts to prevent the situation from happening again. Also, like Professor Bender, I believe the professor is looking for a new job- probably because half of the business school knows and his reputation is damaged for good.
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