[ad_1]
Harvard spokeswoman Rachael Dane rejected the suggestion that Sullivan lost his position because of his representation of Weinstein, saying the decision "was based on a number of considerations."
She noted that the review revealed serious concerns about Sullivan's leadership, but she also referred to complaints from other Winthrop House employees prior to the Weinstein controversy and discussed in an article in the student newspaper on Friday.
"We have already worked with the house during interventions, but these measures have not proven sufficient," she said.
The story of Harvard Crimson details the complaints of Winthrop House staff members against Sullivan's leadership for several years, describing a toxic environment.
Sullivan and his wife, the first African-American deans at Harvard, issued a statement in which they said they would "take some time to process Harvard shares and look at our options," but did not respond. directly to accusations of university officials or employees of Winthrop House.
"We are surprised and dismayed by the action announced by Harvard today. We thought the discussions we had with high level academic representatives were progressing positively, but Harvard unilaterally ended these discussions, "they wrote. "We are sorry that Harvard's actions and the controversy surrounding us have helped to stress Winthrop's students in this already stressful time."
The finals start at Harvard on Monday. Some of the students who had urged Harvard to fire Sullivan were pleased with the administration's action.
"Knowing that the university is really going to listen to us and do something to end it has been a real relief," said Allison Scharmann, 20, who lives in Winthrop House and is part of Our Harvard group Can Do Better. .
Danu AK Mudannayake, the student who protested against Sullivan's role as Weinstein, said that his departure, intervening during the #MeToo move and after confirmation of the division of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, would spread beyond the campus.
"That's why this win – even if it's located on our campus – is a lot to many other people. This gives voice to critics who are constantly being criticized, "she said.
Since February, some students have been protesting against Sullivan, claiming that his leading role in defending the #MeToo movement's main target was inconsistent with his duties as a pedagogical advisor who lives and works with undergraduates and sets the tone. to their university experience.
Sullivan's supporters responded by saying that, being sensitive to the current controversy, students were abandoning the principles of the American justice system.
Lawyer, George J. Leontire, a friend of Sullivan's, recently told the Globe that students unfairly accused the elder of Weinstein's alleged crimes and evoked the "Salem Witch Trials", claiming that anyone associated with #MeToo's allegations would be punished, "No matter how connected they are."
Mudannayake called this interpretation "idiocy".
"Sullivan and Leontire are very good at making people like me. . . look like the kind of snowflake liberals who want every man to be put in jail for no good reason, "she said.
The ongoing drama has led some to question Sullivan's judgment and leadership – and Winthrop House employees to reveal that they had questioned him long before the Weinstein controversy. Sullivan and his wife, a professor at the law school, live at Winthrop House with their two children. They are responsible for all students and other staff members, including resident deans, administrators and 18 resident tutors.
The story of Crimson revealed that since 2016, more than a dozen students and staff members of Winthrop had told Harvard administrators of concerns regarding Sullivan and Robinson, suggesting that they had created a toxic climate in the house. According to the Crimson, just in early 2016, three guardians were threatened with dismissal; 13 guardians threatened to leave in protest; and a Winthrop employee resigned, apparently under pressure from Sullivan and Robinson.
Most of Harvard's 11 other residential communities had one or two house trustees in the decade since Sullivan became Dean of the faculty, the Crimson reported. Winthrop House had nine – a turnover that staff attributed to the difficult environment that left some in tears, after being tasked with tasks assigned to deans of professors, such as as personal races and races, according to the article.
Meanwhile, the controversy over his defense of Weinstein has sparked disputes between Sullivan's supporters and critics.
In recent weeks, the angry moat has exploded in public view. At one point, students organized the occupation of Winthrop House to "reclaim it as a safe space" for victims of sexual assault.
A married couple who worked as a tutor at Winthrop House sued the dean of the faculty of another house, alleging that she had defamed them in e-mails and texts that she had distributed about them. . The couple also filed a police report about an incident in the Winthrop dining hall with Mudannayake, and their lawyer, Léontire, threatened to file a harassment complaint against him.
In the defamation case, Leontire summoned five Harvard faculty members or students, including a student journalist, to whom he asked for all communications regarding Sullivan.
The Crimson resists the subpoena, claiming that his reporter is not a party to the case.
Leontire, a friend of Sullivan who worked side by side with him in the legal team that acquitted former New England patriot Aaron Hernandez of two counts of double murder, did not responded to a request for comment made on Saturday.
Mudannayake said the events show "open retaliation" from Sullivan's defenders for his vocal opposition.
Khurana, for her part, called the decision not to keep Sullivan and Robinson as Dean of the faculty "a regrettable situation and a very difficult decision to make. I have long admired the commitment of your deans of faculties for justice and civic engagement, as well as for the excellent work they have done in favor of diversity in their community in the House. "
Sullivan and his wife were the first deans of faculties to be named African Americans in 2009; another African American dean has been appointed since that time.
In an interview with the New Yorker in March, Sullivan said he felt some of his attacks could be racially motivated. In this interview, he also resisted the criticism of activists against him, accusing the administration of opposing it.
"It's in the nature of students to protest," he told the New Yorker. "The adults in the room, however, do not have to react like they did."
Stephanie Ebbert can be contacted at Stephanie.Ebbert @ globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ StephanieEbbert
[ad_2]
Source link