In 2017, a national debate on sexual harassment ensued in the United States following multiple high profile survivors coming forward to share their story of abuse by Harvey Weinstein. As of December 2017, women continue to come forward naming Weinstein as a perpetrator, and Weinstein was removed from his position, a message that reverberated throughout society. Survivors began to come forward to confront their harassers across contexts. They have been validated like never before. In the United States Congress, senator Al Franken, and representative John Conyers Jr. each resigned after allegations arose against them. Further, allegations against Alabama Judge Roy Moore led to his narrow defeat for a vacant Alabama senate seat. These events took place amidst the backdrop of President Donald Trump’s, “grab ‘em by the pussy” video which came to light in the 2016 elections. Events have led to an explosive uptake of Tarana Burke’s #metoo social media hashtag, which quickly became an empowering media campaign for survivors of sexual harassment. These are but few of dozens of stories that broke in late 2017, leading TIME magazine to name the silence breakers, as the person of the year.

Academic environments are no exceptions to the international problem of sexual harassment. For example, 44.1% of female graduate students reported sexual assault in 2015 data, of which nearly one quarter of assaults were reportedly committed by faculty members (Cantalupo & Kidder, 2017). The power imbalances inherent to academic environments create opportunities for harassment which are exacerbated by university responses that prioritize image maintenance and faculty protection above student safety. As an example, cases at Notre Dame University show alleged interference by administration with investigations. Further, the #MeToo campaign has brought to light multiple stories of students being assaulted by professors at several highly respected universities. Because of strict protections allotted to the accused perpetrators, such as requiring approval from a faculty board before a tenured professor can be fired, academia is unique compared to other industries. Time and again, we have witnessed minimal repercussions for those found responsible for assaulting others leading to frustration, disillusionment, and a feeling of unease among those most vulnerable. Recently, faculty at the University of Rochester, NY created an open letter informing the University's board of trustees that the university is currently unfit to serve students or employees given efforts by administration to bully survivors of harassment into silence.

Our university, University of Southern California, is no exception to this problem. In October 2017, local media highlighted our university for the resignation/dismissal of two medical school deans who were found to have put students safety at risk through behaviour that went undisclosed to the campus community. Furthermore, an executive leading a fundraising campaign was fired following multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. As social work students, we were deeply impacted by the October 25th revelation that our faculty member, Erick Guerrero, was responsible for sexually harassing multiple PhD students including Karissa Fenwick. Due to the widespread problem of sexual harassment we were saddened but not surprised. While university investigations found the allegations against Dr. Guerrero to be substantiated, he remained on staff with continued access to masters level students, office space, and campus activities, leading Karissa to the difficult decision to publicly share her story. Following Karissa’s telling of her story, the School administration released a letter, which was then forwarded to all alumni with a preface stating that our school has zero tolerance for such behaviour, which was a demonstrably false. Given the social momentum of the #MeToo campaign, and our disappointment with our University’s failure to act in line with the ethics of our social work profession, we, a group of diverse students, were moved to immediate action.

In support of our student colleagues, Karissa Fenwick and anonymous survivor Student X, and aware of our ability to act given a social environment ready to discuss sexual harassment, students engaged in activism. University of Southern California social work students and alumni banded together and immediately formed a student led coalition to demand accountability and transparency from the administration. This student led coalition was named “Social Workers for Accountability and Transparency,” and is composed of hundreds of current and former MSW and PhD students who are coordinating meetings with faculty, administrators, and staff, engagement with the media, and planning awareness events. Our coalition’s first action at the public release of Karissa’s case was to contact university media, who then reported on Karissa’s case and our student led coalition. At that time, we released a letter to the public and administrators demanding more from those in positions of power.

At first, administration response to our letter was tepid, and somewhat unspecific with statements about needed change without action. The Dean of our school requested a meeting with the doctoral program. Doctoral students present silently marched into the meeting to release a statement prepared by the coalition demanding the creation of a task force to review and revise existing policies regarding sexual misconduct. The letter also asked for a town hall style venue to give space to the social work student community to process at this difficult time. Days after our coalition’s initial letter was released, nearly 80 supportive faculty members at our school released a letter offering our coalition their unqualified support. Coalition representatives were then invited to speak to our school’s faculty council where they shared coalition expectations. With clear, consistent and noninflammatory social work intervention, a path was created for official policy change at our school and university.

On November 15, 2017 a town hall was held where students had the opportunity to directly ask questions of administrators. Ahead of the town hall meeting, our coalition distributed information to the campus community. The event was reported on by student media, and a short news piece aired that evening. During the meeting, members of our coalition shared their experiences with administrators. One MSW student came forward and discussed her frustration at the lack of transparency and sanction enforcement that allowed her to be hired onto Dr. Erick Guerrero’s research project in late September of 2017, after the accusations against him had already been substantiated by the University. It came to light during the town hall that sanctions against Dr. Guerrero barred him from work with PhD students, but not MSW students. This fact further motivated students to demand accountability and transparency to students’ safety. In response, the Dean asked the MSW students be dismissed from her position and that the sanctions be revised. As the town hall meeting progressed, the provost exhibited enthusiasm that a task force, as requested by our student coalition could change the culture of the university and protect students. The Provost asked that the task force foment policies that reflect the high standard of those values enshrined in the social work profession. Following the town hall meeting, the Dean released a letter informing the social work community that the task force would have its first meeting in November, and that a website was created for students to keep track of the task force’s progress. By December 1st, a task force composed of multiple working groups with representation of faculty, staff, and current students was formed.

Our coalition continued to share our story, and in the course of our activism, multiple media outlets have published on Karissa's case including in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Other student groups have also made their support of our coalition and Karissa publicly know including our Graduate Student Government who demanded that the administration take our initial letter seriously, and students at the School of Public Policy. At the one month anniversary of Karissa coming forward, our coalition released a statement directed at administration to act in support of student safety, with broad university student organizations signing on. We also released an update to our original letter to ensure further accountability. Recently we have planned a coordinated awareness-raising campaign at the annual conference for the Society for Social Work and Research held being held in January, 2018. We will be wear and distribute “I am Student X” pins that allow attendees to visibly stand in solidarity with survivors and identify themselves as an ally in the fight for safety, accountability and transparency on sexual harassment in academia. A handful of coalition representatives have also met with the University Provost where he agreed to organize and event with our coalition to hear and respond to student concerns.

Karissa’s case is ongoing, however, our colleague has been a catalyst for concrete policy change that will protect future students. Karissa’s case is not an aberration, but rather the case of one of many survivors who have been threatened, and coerced by unequal dynamics and relationships within the academy. What’s unique in Karissa’s case is her challenge to spark discussion and analysis of her case so that future abuse can be prevented. We hope to create a University environment that fosters support and validation of survivors and their experiences, so that others may also share their stories. This may allow our University and others like it to question standing policies, practices and culture surrounding sexual harassment. We believe that our work over a short period of time, in tandem with the work of thousands of others across our country and the globe who have put themselves at risk to discuss sexual harassment has given us this opportunity. Karissa's op-ed in The Washington Post highlights how personally difficult this process can be. We stand in support and gratitude for her coming forward. It is not easy to question how we ourselves and ones that we love who are members of our community can perpetrate sexual harassment. It is not easy to reconcile these true circumstance, but we must, and social workers like Karissa who are brave and willing to hold space and demand accountability are needed.

Works Cited

Cantalupo N. C., Kidder W. C. (2017). Mapping the title IX iceberg: Sexual harassment in (mostly) in graduate school by college faculty. Journal of Legal Education, 66, 4, 850-881.