Claims of Harassment Surface at USP Campus
Allegations of pressure for sexual favours in exchange for academic assistance have surfaced at the University of the South Pacific (USP).
student, who spoke to on the condition of not being named, said her lecturer offered to only help her if she obliged to his request to go to his home.
She needed help with her assignment. As a young and naïve woman,
former she looked to her lecturer for help.
“We had consultation hours, so I went to see him. He told me he would only help me if I had gone to his home to do the assignment together.”
She never obliged to his request. She had heard stories about other female students going to his home.
After telling her friends and having lost hope in her assignment, she dropped the course for two semesters. She feared coming into contact with her lecturer.
She studied the unit again after a change in lecturer, she said.
She feared that the lecturer had also tried similar actions on other students. a
Light that there had been instances of sexual harassment and formal complaints had been lodged.
She said complaints had resulted in those staff members being suspended and disciplinary process took its course.
A former student, speaking on the condition of not being identified, said lecturers would ask her group out to dine with him.
They were only Foundation students at the time. Some accepted.
This, she said, was weird and she did not associate herself with these lecturers. There are so many examples, she added.
“They [lecturers] would say come have dinner with and we would give you good grades,” she said.
Offers for dinner by lecturers were one of the indications for sexual favours.
A current student of the university said a lecturer was known to always pressure female students for sexual favours in return for good grades.
The student spoke on the condition of not being identified. The student feared being publicly stigmatised.
The student added the lecturer would flirt with female students during class.
The lecturer would pressure them to get into a relationship with him, the student said.
These students spoke in the context of the 16 Days Activism against Gender-Based Violence that was launched on Thursday.
USP RESPONSE
Responding to emailed questions, USP Manager Public Relations and Communications, Natasha Begum said: “The university wishes not to comment on unsubstantiated information. It will verify your claims if you provide evidence or more information about the allegations you have highlighted.”
Ms Begum said the university took “allegations of such nature seriously and has a zero tolerance on sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace.
“All incidents and complaints of sexual harassment will be investigated and treated with strictest confidence and due diligence without impunity and victimisation.”
She said any person alleged to have committed sexual harassment shall be subjected to an impartial due process and internal disciplinary mechanism.
TUTOR INCIDENT
It has also been brought to light that a staff member of the university was alleged to have sexually harassed other women, but not for good grades.
A source, who spoke on the condition of not being identified, said the man had acted in his capacity as a staff of the university.
“He was someone I had trusted,” one of the victims said.
“We were human rights activists, and he would facilitate any research work I did with students at the university,” the victim said.
The victim had reached out to Shine a Light to tell her story. She feels the university could do more to protect young women who could be preyed on by academics.
In a separate incident involving the same staff member, the alleged perpetrator had allegedly made sexual and violent remarks towards the victim when the victim was going through relationship problems.
Shine a Light has been reliably informed that the victim had lodged a formal complaint with the head of school in September 2020.
The victim was also a staff of the university at the time. She was hired to help the alleged perpetrator with marking course papers.
In another incident, the same staff member had allegedly tried to sexually harass another victim.
The victim had also reported the matter to the university, but no action had been taken by the university on both occasions, the source said.
The senior woman staff of the university and Head of School said she wasn’t aware of the particular case.
“Any cases like this have to be dealt with internally. Until I know the details, I wouldn’t be able to respond. But I wouldn’t respond anyway on a matter like this if it’s a staff member. There are internal processes for this,” she said.
“Formal complaints are always dealt with internally. There’s a disciplinary process and USP, like a lot of organisations, have zero tolerance for sexual abuse.”
One of the victims said she now felt empowered. She said it was time that someone stood up against men who preyed on innocent young girls.
“Girls who probably don’t know better, who are naïve, who thinks that the compliment and go with the flow, and later realise that they were sexually abused.”