A month ago, Soochow University's Gender Equality Committee
The findings coincided with a recent case of sexual harassment at another Taipei area university. According to newspaper reports, that school's Gender Equality Committee found evidence of sexual harassment, but the college's Faculty Review Committee voted not to dismiss the professor involved even though that was the unanimous decision at the department level.
The decision upset the Gender Equality Committee so much that it put up posters in protest. In the end, the university-level Faculty Review Committee took up the case and more than two-thirds of the members voted to accept the findings of the Gender Equality Committee. Once that is affirmed, there is only one choice -- the removal of the professor.
The incident was just one of several in recent years, including the famous "seven wolves" (七匹狼事件 - 7 teachers at a national university who were accused of sexual harrassment by some female students in April 1994). Usually the university authorities, claiming to be protecting the interest of the harassed student, quietly asks the member of staff named to resign or to take early retirement. The victim, frustrated and feeling that the perpetrator has not received the proper punishment, resorts to taking her complaint to a women's rights group.
Under pressure from many women's rights groups, the Ministry of Education has called for greater participation of the members of gender equality committees in the affairs of faculty review committees. Whether this will bring about the desired result remains to be seen.
A more effective way to prevent sexual harassment would be to proscribe it in university by-laws or regulations governing the employment of university faculty.
At present, a faculty member can be removed only when he or she demonstrates "incompetence" in teaching or a "gross violation" of appropriate behavior and all three levels (department, college and university) of the faculty review committee have voted for dismissal. Without a codified guideline, it is indeed very hard for the members of these committees to decide how to vote.
I believe that a greater voice for the members of gender equality committees on the faculty review committee may be helpful in taking more effective measures against violators of this regulation.
Unless there is greater awareness of the issue and it is codified into university by-laws, I am not sure that an effective complaint or grievance process can be implemented.
The Ministry of Education, wary of the impact this kind of incident has on the academic world, actually took the initiative last year. It passed "Principles for Dealing with Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault on Campus"
Maybe the Human Rights Committee
Yen Chen-shen is research fellow at National Chengchi University.
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