Student group ‘appalled’ alleged sexual misconduct allowed to go on so long

Concordia says investigation is underway

MONTREAL • Concordia University has reassigned courses that were to be taught this term by professors who have been the subjects of recent high-profile allegations of sexual misconduct while those allegations are being investigated, according to a notice sent to students in the English department by their student association.

“We are deeply upset and appalled that this university has allowed sexual misconduct to harm students for so long in what should have been a safe and professional environment,” says the notice, signed by the executive of the Concordia Association for Students in English (CASE).

The notice informed students of a meeting held Friday afternoon by members of the administration to inform students in the Creative Writing program “of remedial actions the university has decided to take, as well as to respond to questions.” The notice also warned students that faculty members have a potential conflict of interest and recommended students not treat the meeting as a forum to share experiences, but rather as an opportunity to demand change.

The notice said “courses taught by the professors named online are being reassigned pending investigation, the books written by those faculty members have been removed from the display window on the sixth floor of the Webster Library Building and a third party is conducting the investigations.” Alan Shepard The university’s director of public affairs, Mary-Jo Barr, would not confirm that courses had been reassigned, nor that books had been removed from the library’s display case. She did say an investigation is underway and that it is being conducted by an external investigator.

She said the administration also met with all of the university’s department chairs on Friday to “express that we are deeply disturbed by the kind of behaviour described today and to remind the departments of our zero tolerance for such behaviour. We are also pointing them to the resources in place to deal with such misconduct.”

The CASE notice charges that the university did not act in an effective way on earlier public accusations of sexual misconduct within the department, referring specifically to an online essay by Emma Healey published on The Hairpin website in 2014. Another online essay by Mike Spry posted on Monday prompted a number of further claims on Twitter that certain professors were known to have inappropriate relationships with students or to sexually harass students.

University President Alan Shepard held a news conference Monday to react to the allegations and said that he had not been informed of impropriety in the Creative Writing program before Monday of this week.

But on Thursday, a former student posted a letter that she claims she and others sent to the chair of the English Department in February 2015 describing a “toxic atmosphere” in the program, and saying they felt “uncomfortable and unsafe attending readings, events and seminars within the wider Montreal literary community because of Concordia professors’ involvement and place at the centre of that community.”

Barr said Shepard stands by his statement that he was not informed of the improprieties raised in the Spry essay and in reaction to it on Twitter before this week.

“The 2015 letter was managed at the appropriate level at that time,” she said. “The department did meet with students and took action. For reasons of privacy and confidentiality, we can’t provide more specifics.”