Interventions for Preventing Sexual Harassmen

Benya, Frazier

English

The Keep

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy
Volume 0 National Center Proceedings 2019 Article 22
April 2019
Panel: Sexual Harassment in Higher Education:
Understanding Root Causes and Developing
Labor-Management Solutions
Frazier Benya
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine
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Recommended Citation
Benya, Frazier (2019) "Panel: Sexual Harassment in Higher Education: Understanding Root Causes and Developing Labor-
Management Solutions," Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy: Vol. 0 , Article 22.
Available at: https://thekeep.eiu.edu/jcba/vol0/iss14/22
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Create Diverse, Inclusive, 
and Respectful Environments 
 
Hiring and Promotion: Take explicit steps to 
achieve greater gender and racial equity in hiring and 
promotions, and improve the representation of women at 
every level. 
• The University of Michigan Committee on Strategies 
and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and 
Excellence (STRIDE) offers Faculty Recruitment 
Workshops for faculty members with an important role 
in faculty recruitment. 
 
Civility-Promotion: Combine anti-harassment 
efforts with programs to promote civility. 
• The 2016 EEOC Task Force on the Study of 
Harassment in the Workplace recommends workplace 
training focused on respect and civility. 
• The Civility, Respect, and Engagement at Work 
(CREW) program is an intensive 6-month intervention 
geared to enhance employees’ interpersonal 
awareness and communication skills. 
 
Interrupt and Intervene in Inappropriate 
Behavior: Utilize training approaches that develop 
skills among participants to interrupt and intervene when 
inappropriate behavior occurs. 
• Bystander intervention training such as Confronting 
Prejudiced Responses (CPR) and Behavior Modeling 
Training (BMT) is designed to train participants to 
recognize and report problematic behavior. 
 
Training that Aims to Change Behavior: 
Training should focus on changing behavior, not on 
changing beliefs.  
• Programs should clearly communicate behavioral 
expectations and specify consequences for failing to 
meet those expectations. Training programs should 
not be based on the avoidance of legal liability. 
Improve Transparency and 
Accountability 
Clear Policies: Develop and share clear, accessible, 
and consistent policies on sexual harassment and standards 
of behavior. Make clear that people will be held 
accountable for violating the policies.  
• Include a range of clear disciplinary actions that 
correspond with the severity of the harassment. 
• Engage the academic community in policy and practice 
reviews. Some institutions have created student advisory 
boards and forums for students to meet with the Title IX 
Steering Committee.  
 
Transparency about Handling Reports:  
Be as transparent as possible about how the institution is 
handling reports of sexual harassment. 
• Yale University publishes a semiannual Report of 
Complaints of Sexual Misconduct and an annual campus 
safety report to inform the campus community. 
  
Assess Climate: Utilize climate surveys to further 
investigate and address systemic sexual harassment. 
• The results of climate surveys should be shared publicly 
to demonstrate to the campus community that the 
institution takes the issue seriously. The Administrator-
Researcher Campus Climate Collaborative (ARC3) survey 
has been used by more than 150 higher education 
institutions. 
 
Research Integrity: Consider sexual harassment 
equally important as research misconduct in terms of its 
effect on the integrity of research. 
• The U.S. Geological Survey and the Department of the 
Interior have broad scientific integrity policies that apply 
to employees, appointees, volunteers, grantees, and 
contractors. Some scientific societies such as the 
American Geophysical Union have developed new ethics 
policies that explicitly call out sexual harassment and 
discrimination.  
 
INTERVENTIONS FOR 
PREVENTING SEXUAL HARASSMENT  
1
Benya: Panel: Sexual Harassment in Higher Education: Understanding Root
Published by The Keep, 2019
 Diffuse the Hierarchical 
and Dependent 
Relationship Between 
Trainees and Faculty 
Mentoring Networks: Adopt 
mentoring networks or committee-based 
advising that allows for a diversity of potential 
pathways for advice, funding, support, and 
informal reporting of harassment. 
 
Independent Research Funding: 
Develop ways research funding can be 
provided to the trainee rather than just the 
principal investigator. 
  
 
Provide Support for the Target 
Access to Support Services: Provide means for the target of 
harassment to access support services (social services, health care, legal, 
career/professional). 
 
Informal Reporting: Provide alternative and less formal means of 
recording information about the experience and reporting the 
experience. 
• Provide anonymous, confidential reporting systems. Callisto is an 
online system that allows targets to control the disclosure of 
information, access supportive services, and share information on 
alleged perpetrators. 
• Provide confidential reporting channels outside of the faculty or usual 
workplace hierarchy, such as an ombudsperson. 
• Explore the use of restorative justice processes. The Campus PRISM 
(Promoting Restorative Initiatives for Sexual Misconduct) Project calls 
for accountability through collaboration and prevention through 
education.  
 
Prevent Retaliation: Develop approaches to prevent the target 
from experiencing or fearing retaliation in academic settings. 
• Be prepared to take action to ensure the target of the harassment is 
able to continue his/her academic work. This could include using 
mutual no contact orders between the accused and accuser, changing 
class schedules, changing the locks at the housing facility or 
workplace, rescinding building access for the accused, and reassigning 
advisors, mentees, and supervisors. 
 
 
 
 
Strive for Strong and Diverse Leadership  
Make it an Explicit Goal: College and university presidents, provosts, deans, department chairs, and program directors 
must make the reduction and prevention of sexual harassment an explicit goal of their tenure.  
 
Develop Leadership Skills: Support and facilitate leaders at every level (university, school/college, department, lab) in 
developing skills in leadership, conflict resolution, mediation, negotiation, and de-escalation, and ensure a clear understanding 
of policies and procedures for handling sexual harassment issues.  
 
Move Beyond Legal Liability: Leadership training programs should include training on how to recognize and handle 
sexual harassment issues, and how to take explicit steps to create a culture and climate to reduce and prevent sexual 
harassment—and not just protect the institution against liability. 
 
 
 
 
This brief is based on the findings and recommendations in Sexual Harassment of Women: 
Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018). 
Copies of the Report are available from the National Academies Press, (800) 624-6242; 
http://www.nap.edu or at www.nationalacademies.org/sexualharassment.  
 
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Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy, Vol. 0, Iss. 14 [2019], Art. 22
https://thekeep.eiu.edu/jcba/vol0/iss14/22


Panel: Sexual Harassment in Higher Education: Understanding Root Causes and Developing Labor-Management Solutions

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Panel: Sexual Harassment in Higher Education: Understanding Root Causes and Developing Labor-Management Solutions

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