KNOXVILLE, Tn. – In the last two years, six cases of sexual misconduct by faculty or staff at the University of Tennessee Knoxville led to those employees resigning or disciplinary action being taken.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports the complaints were made between November 2015 and November 2017. The complaints represent only accusations involving faculty or staff — not between students — that the university said were substantiated by the Office of Equity and Diversity. The total number of complaints involving faculty or staff was not available.
There are about 9,700 UT faculty and staff in Knoxville, including the UT Space Institute and UT Institute of Agriculture.
The information came from a public records request. The request came amid questions about the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and assault and how to break a culture of silence.
Higher education is no exception. University employees might be slightly more likely to experience sexual harassment or assault than those in the average American workplace due to the nature of work often done independently, with little oversight and strong interpersonal relationships where the lines between personal and professional blur, according to Joanna Grossman, a professor of law at SMU Dedman School of Law in Texas.
The recent spotlight on sexual harassment and assault means universities and other workplaces are being forced to evaluate their own work climates and public reaction to how the issue is handled.
“People who didn’t complain before are going to now,” Grossman said. “People who weren’t going to say anything before are saying it now. It’s really a whole new world. Universities have been really kind of slow to recognize what’s going on on their own campuses, and to me, #MeToo is sort of a catalyst for that self-reflection.”
