College chief rejects case’s web campaign

A UNIVERSITY president has rejected an internet campaign which says sanctions against a lecturer for sexual harassment are a breach of academic freedom.

Dr Dylan Evans has been told by University college Cork president Dr Michael Murphy to undergo counselling and his behaviour at work must be monitored for two years after external investigators found that he had sexually harassed a female colleague. The complaint arose when he went to her office in the university last November and showed her an academic article about research which found that female fruit bats perform oral sex on their partners during intercourse.

While the complaint was upheld, on the grounds that the female academic was entitled to be offended by a joke with sexual innuendo, he and his union contend that academic freedoms in third-level colleges entitle a lecturer to share academic research papers with colleagues.