Uni’s bad behaviour claims up
ALLEGATIONS of bad behaviour levelled against both staff and students at the University of Otago have been rising since 2013, and sciences and health sciences staff make up the majority of all ethical behaviour complaints.
Information released under the Official Information Act reveals the number of complaints against academic and professional staff rose from nine in 2013 to 21 in 2017.
In total there were 62 complaints against staff across the entire period.
Staff in the health sciences division comprise about 50% of the university’s 4623 staff members, and were responsible for about 49% of complaints. Staff in the sciences division comprise 13% of all staff members, but were responsible for about 30% of all complaints.
By contrast, only one complaint was made against a humanities staff member in the fiveyear time period and one complaint was made against a commerce staff member— less than 4 % of the total number.
About onetenth of staff work in humanities, and 4% work in commerce.
Otago University Students’ Association president Caitlin BarlowGroome said the greater size of the sciences and health sciences divisions and the greater amount of contact time between staff and students possibly contributed to the disparity between subjects.
‘‘This is a societywide problem and Dunedin is not immune to it.
‘‘This being said, we do not condone in any way these actions and we encourage students with any issues to contact OUSA Student Support,’’ she said.
A university spokeswoman said the larger number of complaints in health sciences and sciences reflected the larger size and number of staff in those divisions.
The Otago University Medical Students’ Association declined to comment.
The remainder of complaints made were against staff working in the ‘‘operations’’ area of the university.
Twentytwo of the total number of complaints levelled against staff since 2013 were for bullying, and another 32 were for an unspecified breach of the principle to treat other university community members with respect.
The university noted people could make more than one allegation against someone in their complaint.
Six incidents of harassment were reported in the fiveyear period, three of them specifically of sexual harassment, and there were also a handful of complaints relating to ‘‘abuse of supervisory authority’’.
Thirtythree of the total 62 complaints were against academic staff members, and the remainder were against other university staff.
Fifty of the complaints were investigated, 19 were substantiated, and 20 were partially substantiated.
Regarding students, the number of ethical behaviour complaints dealt with by the University of Otago proctor was only three in 2013, resulting in three warnings.
However, that number rose to a total of 18 in 2017.
Sixteen of those complaints were ‘‘behaviour issues’’ and two were inappropriate communications.
They led to seven warnings, two mediations, one fine, one period of community work, two police referrals, and five complaints where no action was taken.
2017 was the first year when a referral to the police was recorded.
‘‘Two incidents involving police referral in 2017 related to a safety order placed on an individual for a number of days, and seeking police assistance to ascertain the owner of a vehicle,’’ the spokeswoman said.
The bulk of complaints over the fiveyear period related to inappropriate communications, behaviour issues or bullying, and there was only one sexual harassment complaint made against a student, in 2015.