Harassed faculty tell family, friends more frequently than campus officials, Blackstone, Gardner find

A survey indicated that faculty who were harassed at an unspecified public university told friends, family and colleagues about their experiences far more frequently than they did campus human resources officials.

The faculty members — who were aware of the university’s harassment policies — said they were dissatisfied with how their complaints were handled when they did report harassment to official sources.

Those were among the findings of Amy Blackstone, a University of Maine sociologist, and Susan Gardner, director of UMaine’s Rising Tide Center and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

In 2011, they sent surveys to 573 faculty members (338 responded) to gauge workplace climate at the university, where 80 percent of full professors, 59 percent of associate professors and 52 percent of assistant professors were male.

Blackstone and Gardner’s findings are in “Mobilization in Response to Workplace Harassment: Lessons from One University Setting,” published in Trends in Diversity, an online journal launched by Kent State University’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The findings are part of a larger and ongoing study.

Blackstone and Gardner suggest possible courses of action, including that knowledgeable outsiders — victims’ advocates, government authorities and legal experts — could train campus human resource and equal opportunity officials to more effectively respond to reported harassment complaints.

Having knowledgeable and supportive campus officers will ultimately raise awareness about and reduce harassment on campus, they say.

More than two-thirds of survey respondents who had been harassed told a co-worker about the experience. This points to an untapped source of support for workers and reduction of workplace harassment, say Blackstone and Gardner.

Institutions could consider providing supportive colleagues with awareness-raising and training, including bystander intervention, they say.

Nearly all of the 338 faculty respondents (94 percent) indicated they were aware of the university’s harassment policy that states acts of harassment and violence in the workplace will not be tolerated.

According to the policy, harassment is “unwelcome behavior that’s severe, persistent, and/or pervasive and has the intent or effect of interfering with a person’s educational or work performance or creates an intimidating, or offensive educational, work, or living environment.”

Going by that definition, 45 of 309 responding faculty members (14.6 percent) said they had been harassed at the university, including 23 percent of female respondents and 9 percent of male respondents.

Nearly all (97.8 percent) respondents who said they had been harassed also said they had talked with someone about it. For context, the researchers say in prior harassment studies in workplace contexts, fewer than half of employees indicated they had spoken with another person about their experiences.

“What’s particularly notable is how many people told someone about their harassment experience,” says Blackstone. “Our findings suggest that family members, friends, and colleagues are a critical source of support for those experiencing workplace harassment and that these supportive others should be considered in policy and programming efforts.”

Faculty said they talked with a family member (81.8 percent), friend (77.3 percent), colleague (68.2 percent), supervisor (52.3 percent), Equal Opportunity officer (27.3 percent), Employee Assistance Program official (6.8 percent), human resources personnel (4.6 percent), Public Safety officer (2.3 percent) and union representative (2.3 percent).

Blackstone and Gardner asked faculty respondents to include additional details so they could better understand why the respondents were reluctant to report harassment to campus superiors or to formal entities.

Sixty percent of the 309 faculty members provided additional details. Just over 33 percent said they were bullied and 18.5 percent said they were sexually harassed. Nearly half (48.2 percent) didn’t state the type of harassment they experienced.

More than 33 percent reported the harassment was ongoing and current, 22 percent indicated it was ongoing but had ended, and 11.1 percent said it was an isolated event.

Those respondents identified their harassers as colleagues (51.9 percent), superiors (25.9 percent) and students (7.4 percent). Blackstone and Gardner say reporting up the “chain of command” would understandably be unlikely in cases where respondents’ superiors were the harassers.

Often, faculty who attempted to report “up the chain” said they were disappointed by the response of authorities.

One person wrote: “I was told that since the individual involved has tenure and refuses to participate in mediation, nothing could be done. This has gone on for over 12 years.”

Blackstone says it’s encouraging that universities already are using the study’s findings to inform policy and programming.

At UMaine, Gardner says the study’s findings were recently reviewed at a meeting of the Provost’s Council for Advancing Women Faculty. The campuswide representative body discusses policy and practices to assist in the recruitment, retention and advancement of female faculty at UMaine.

Under the provost’s leadership and guidance, Gardner says the council discussed ways to improve training to prevent harassment at UMaine, as well as mechanisms to encourage academic departments to promote more civil and collegial practices in their day-to-day interactions.

Contact: Beth Staples, 207.581.3777