Guest Column | GET-UP committee speaks out on proposed sexual harassment policy
Several weeks ago, the University of Pennsylvania announced proposed changes to the process for reporting issues of sexual harassment in our community. One change is to designate a single staff member to receive and respond to allegations of sexual harassment from across campus. We are pleased that Penn is finally responding to urgent critiques raised by Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania, Graduate and Professional Student Assembly, and others: When deans, department chairs, and peers of the accused are given the power to investigate sexual misconduct, allegations are often swept under the rug. When students allege misconduct by their employers, supervisors, or instructors, there are massive power imbalances that the University has not been mitigating. We hope this policy will be a step in the direction of changing that. However, there are several things that continue to concern us, as members of GET-UP, Penn’s union of graduate workers.