“He was like a leech. He was clearly the dominant person with a vulnerable student, and he was so arrogant ”
As university calls for external review following sexual harassment claims, 20 current and former staff say the issue has been long ignored.
Sarah Trotman ONZM does not suffer fools, yet to her horror and deep embarrassment, here was a senior professor from her own university making one of himself, in front of her scandalised guests at a charity gala.
Trotman declines to name the charity for which the gala was held – ‘‘they don’t deserve to have their good name dragged through this’’ – but the business leader clearly remembers the night at Auckland’s Town Hall, in 2013.
‘‘Max Abbott’s behaviour towards a very beautiful young student was appalling,’’ she says of the AUT professor, who last week stood down as dean of its Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences over allegations of sexual misconduct.
‘‘He was like a leech. He was clearly the dominant person with a vulnerable student, and he was so arrogant... he did not try to cover it up in any way.’’
Some AUT staff believe the ‘‘arrogance’’ of senior management, including Abbott, has sewn a toxic culture of harassment and fear into the fabric of the institution, over decades. The Sunday
Star-Times has spoken to 20 current and former staff, both men and women, who independently report inappropriate behaviour and sexual harassment is an open secret on campus, requiring an active ‘‘whisper network’’ to warn new employees to steer clear of predatory men.
Many spoke of a ‘‘boy’s club’’ at the top; men at senior levels who were allowed to act as they liked, without consequences. Those who spoke up were often targeted, bullied, or ‘‘managed’’ out of promotions or even their jobs, multiple staff report. Some have left academia altogether. Most are too scared for their jobs to make their identities public.
Professor of Public Policy at AUT, Dame Marilyn Waring, is succinct in her summary of the plight of the victims.
‘‘Would I recommend to any woman at AUT that she followed an internal complaint procedure? Never. I would say go to the Human Rights Commission. At least they understand what sexual harassment is.’’
In the weeks since a Star-Times investigation revealed a complaint of ‘‘prolonged sexual stalking and harassment’’ laid against Abbott by an overseas colleague, the university has repeatedly claimed its processes are sound.
But on Wednesday evening, under intense pressure from staff, management pulled a surprise U-turn. In an all-staff email,
Vice Chancellor Derek McCormack announced an external review into those policies and procedures, with a focus on sexual harassment.
He promised ‘‘to make any necessary changes to be certain we are a place where everyone feels welcome, safe, and able to succeed – and able to safely and effectively raise concerns if that is not the case’’.
Staff would be able to speak confidentially, and findings and recommendations would be made public, McCormack said.
The news was greeted with relief by some, and scepticism by others.
‘‘Launching a review says they have questions about whether the first investigation (into Professor Max
Abbott) was properly handled,’’ says employment lawyer Susan HornsbyGeluk.
She says reading the written complaint and interviewing Max
Abbott – the steps the university has publicly admitted it took – does not amount to a formal, best-practice investigation. ‘‘You can look at the policies and procedures but either way, they weren’t applied properly in this case.
‘‘It’s great they want this review, but why have they limited it? The trigger is obviously the case you have been writing about, and it would be a perfect opportunity to genuinely look into what happened.’’
Senior current and former AUT staff are also worried past horrors will remain buried.
In Max Abbott’s case, the vice chancellor has told the Star-Times there had been no other complaints against the former dean and pro vice chancellor. Abbott also said his previous record was clean.
But the Star-Times has found a complaint was laid – and then disappeared – after the Town Hall event in 2013.
The student involved is now an accomplished businessperson herself, and lives overseas. She had been invited to the event as a student representative by the dean of the Faculty of Business, Geoff Perry, and describes Abbott’s behaviour that night as ‘‘weird’’. The StarTimes has verified her identity but agreed not to name her.
‘‘Throughout the night I would... turn to face the stage and my back was towards Max, and I started to feel really uncomfortable. Suffice to say the behaviour of the gentleman was not appropriate to me as a student. ‘‘There should be no blurred line where a student wonders whether an older professor is hitting on her.’’
She said she was wearing a traditional saree and had ‘‘never thought anything’’ of it at formal events before. But she felt exposed and vulnerable as a visibly drunk Abbott took photos and video of her behind her back. At one point, he appeared to drop his phone and ducked under the table to retrieve it.
He was under the table for quite a time, she says, and repeatedly touched and held her foot.
‘‘Geoff Perry began to notice that he was not in the best state and we hadn’t even got to mains yet. When Geoff got up... I took his seat, and everyone knew I was getting away from (Abbott).’’
Trotman, who was AUT’s director of business relations at the time, says the evening ended with Abbott smashing a full glass of alcohol on the bare boards of the Town Hall floor. Perry had already left, so she asked a security guard to deal with him.
‘‘I expect professional behaviour in the workplace and I behave professionally myself,’’ Trotman says now, her voice laced with disgust.
‘‘I wouldn’t let a receptionist behave like that, let alone a member of senior management.’’
Trotman claims she spoke to Perry on the night, and followed up with him the next day.
‘‘Geoff made it very clear he would take it from there. I regret not following it up further, but I trusted that AUT would have appropriate processes in place to ensure that complaint was investigated,’’ Trotman says.
Contacted in Singapore, where he now works for education non-profit AACSB, Perry initially said he would ‘‘refresh his recollection’’ and respond to questions. He has since refused to comment.
This week a number of questions from the StarTimes about the issue were brushed aside by AUT, which issued a brief statement instead, saying ‘‘an incident regarding intoxication at a public event was raised in 2013 and addressed. There have not been any allegations of sexual harassment against Professor Abbott, until the one from Dr Paterson’’.
But documents seen by the Star-Times show the student met with Geoff Perry in the week after the Town Hall event and was encouraged to tell the full story. He then promised a formal process, she says.
‘‘He was like a leech. He was clearly the dominant person with a vulnerable student, and he was so arrogant... he did not try to cover it up in any way.’’
Sarah Trotman on the behaviour of Max Abbott, left, at a 2013 charity gala.
‘‘Geoff Perry offered his apologies on behalf of the business faculty, and said (I) was going to get an apology from Max.’’
The latter apology was never made, she claims, and she says she was not contacted again by Perry. In documents seen by the Star-Times, McCormack claims he was never told.
Staff at AUT say this is more than a minor detail – they claim the vice chancellor has known about sexual harassment and inappropriate sexualised behaviour by his senior staff over a long period, and protected the perpetrators from consequences.
One woman says she was approached around 2015, to share what she knew about another senior man suspected of verbally sexual harassing female colleagues. Her experience of the man’s behaviour had been ‘‘complex and awful’’, the woman says.
She agreed to pass on her experiences, but refused to lay an official complaint because she feared the consequences.
‘‘I said, go ahead and report to him (McCormack), but I don’t want my name involved.’’ She remains afraid of the consequences of speaking out.
Others have described the same man as ‘‘more dangerous’’ than Max Abbott.
‘‘(Derek McCormack) has been warned many times about him. Those boys over the years have developed this sense of, I can get away with anything.’’
Much of the detail emerging in recent weeks has centred around Abbott, who was pro vice chancellor of AUT’s North Campus until last week, and is an internationally-renowned expert on gambling harm.
Abbott, 68, stepped down as dean of the faculty after a Star-Times investigation found he had been accused of prolonged harassment of Dr Marisa Paterson, 37, the director of the Centre for Gambling Research at Australian National University in Canberra.
Abbott said he was ‘‘shocked’’ by Paterson’s complaint, which detailed hundreds of sexually explicit texts and one in which he talked of his ‘‘pathological obsession’’ with her.
AUT claimed it had taken the issue seriously, and in an all-staff email on June 2, McCormack said the university was ‘‘committed to zero tolerance of sexual harassment and to full, fair and proper responses to all allegations of it according to our values of pono/respect, tika/integrity and aroha/compassion and our comprehensive policies and procedures for dealing with harassment’’.
But Abbott’s sexualised behaviour, and targeting and grooming of younger female academics has been widely known on campus for decades, according to multiple sources.
One staff member says she was targeted by Abbott after his relationship with another young academic ended. The woman says she was ‘‘very junior’’ and Abbott was ‘‘an extremely powerful person at AUT and beyond’’.
‘‘Most women have just been warned to stay out of his way, but that’s difficult when he’s the head of faculty.’’
She says Abbott would invent reasons to visit her office, invited her to drinks, and once greeted her shirtless at his home, insisting on showing her his bedroom.
‘‘I got extremely traumatised at one point, because after realising what was going on, and not being romantically interested in him at all, it took me a very long time to unhook. Max does not take no for an answer.’’
The woman says AUT’s response to Dr Marisa Paterson’s complaint was not OK, and it was ‘‘unbelievable they are saying this is a one-off’’. Her account of Abbott’s behaviour has been verified by two other sources.
An academic at the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences confirmed there was widespread gossip about Abbott’s ‘‘proclivities’’ and there had long been cries to have him replaced as dean of the faculty.
He told the Star-Times of a routine briefing given by Derek McCormack in September 2018 where all North Campus staff were invited. When a group of women staff members ‘‘disrupted the briefing’’ calling for Abbott to be replaced with a new dean, McCormack squashed the protest.
‘‘Derek’s ability to manage a crowd is impressive,’’ the man said. McCormack has not yet responded to questions about the briefing.
Many of the sources who spoke to the
Star-Times have praised Marisa Paterson for her bravery and commitment in stepping forward publicly. ‘‘She has to be commended for doing this,’’ said one.
But Paterson agonised for months over whether to speak out, wondering if the fall-out from her story would be worth the risk. She says, as a midcareer researcher, she was heavily reliant on more senior academics, and Abbott in particular, to rise through the ranks.
Auckland University Professor of Psychology, Nicola Gavey, says the way academia is structured makes it one of the careers most open to abuses of power – and speaking up is not a safe thing to do.
‘‘In academia, so much of how people’s careers are helped or harmed is through the word of others,’’ Gavey says.
‘‘Everything requires letters of reference (and) if it were even lukewarm in its praise rather than glowing, that can be harmful. In academia you are vulnerable, particularly at junior levels. There’s so many ways a person’s career can be harmed if they get offside with a powerful person.’’
In the wake of Dr Paterson’s story and Abbott’s resignation as dean, women at AUT began to come together, bombarding Derek McCormack with emails and calls, sources say.
One described it as a ‘‘deliberate coming together of the female academic staff, because they’ve had a gutsful’’. Many were appalled Abbott has been allowed to stay on as a professor.
In an unstructured outpouring of anger, the emailers copied in other female staff, which meant multiple staff members were able to see the VC’s replies. Male allies also joined the push for accountability.
Whether the people at the very top – as a university, AUT has a council which governs in the way a board of directors would in the private sector – had been fully advised of the growing unrest among staff, is also in question.
In response to questions this week, Chancellor John Maasland said he had not heard ‘‘either directly or indirectly from any AUT staff who have concerns about sexual misconduct and the culture of AUT’’. He said, ‘‘under the State Sector Act, the issue in question is an employment matter.’’
But Maasland went on to say ‘‘the Council of AUT has been fully briefed about the situation.’’
The Star-Times understands the vice chancellor has an obligation under university management rules to brief the council on strategic matters.
‘‘John Maasland clearly does not think sexual harassment or cultural issues are strategic matters,’’ Sarah Trotman observes.
Maasland pointed the Star-Times back to McCormack; ‘‘I also understand that our vicechancellor has made himself available this week to be interviewed,’’ he said.
Indeed, in the days after initial reporting of the harassment complaint against Max Abbott, McCormack twice agreed to a formal, filmed interview. The first of those, on Thursday June 4, was cancelled 90 minutes before the scheduled appointment – the Star-Times understands this was to allow McCormack to undergo media training by a well-known PR and corporate reputation-management company.
The interview was rescheduled for Monday, June 8, but again abruptly cancelled within two hours of the appointment time.
‘‘We are no longer in a position to participate in this interview due to employment and privacy issues,’’ communications head Alison Sykora emailed. The Star-Times understands McCormack was missing from a senior leadership meeting on Monday morning ‘‘due to a media interview’’.
McCormack has since refused to be interviewed.
It’s seven years since her own experience with Max Abbott, but Sarah Trotman says recent events have made her wonder how ingrained the culture of harassment is at AUT, and how much has been let slide.
She says in the past two weeks she has repeatedly asked for a meeting with council head John Maasland, and has been turned down.
‘‘I think the culture of an organisation is set from the top, and given the way AUT has handled my complaint about this matter, I’m extremely disappointed,’’ she now says.
‘‘Given the length of time a number of councillors have held their roles on the council, one wonders whether they take their responsibilities as governors seriously.’’
AUT said in a statement it took sexual harassment very seriously, and the findings and recommendations of its review would be made public, and would be followed by an implementation programme.