At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Preserving the Reputations of Sexual Harassers
By the time officials at the University of Illinois’ flagship campus in Urbana-Champaign found that an assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine had engaged in sexual harassment, three women had come forward to raise concerns about his behavior.
All three said he had showed up at their homes uninvited.
Though the professor, Valarmathi Thiruvanamalai, denied doing anything wrong, the university office that investigates harassment and discrimination claims ruled against him. “When three different complainants, who have no prior relationship and no significant commonalities other than the lab in which they work, all assert the same type of interaction, one must question Respondent’s credibility and honesty in responding to the allegations,” a specialist in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Access wrote in February 2015 following an investigation. She recommended that Thiruvanamalai face discipline and possibly termination.
Instead, the university took a series of steps that helped keep Thiruvanamalai’s reputation intact.
First, the head of the Department of Comparative Biosciences placed Thiruvanamalai on paid administrative leave for the remainder of his contract with the school and banned him from the lab and other university workspaces.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/university-of-illinois-urbana-champaign-sexual-harassment-professor-faculty
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