UCD academic 'heartened, in a strange way' by further sexual harassment complaints at college

Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin. The UCD total is the highest of the dozen colleges that have issued a response. Photo: Moya Nolan

Academic Aoibhinn Ní'Shúilleabháin has said she is "heartened, in a strange way" by new figures showing seven allegations of sexual harassment were received by authorities at University College Dublin since the start of the pandemic, as it indicates more people are coming forward.

The figures, provided to the Irish Examiner under Freedom of Information, show the seven in-person incidents alleged were among 28 complaints made to university authorities in the past two years, including allegations of bullying made on and off-line.

The same FOI request was made to all the major third-level institutions and while some have yet to respond, the UCD total is the highest of the dozen colleges that have already issued a response.

Of the total number of complaints 14, or half, were not progressed. According to the figures, which cover the period from the start of 2020 to the start of November 2021, two of the sexual harassment allegations at UCD did not progress but five were investigated.

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As well as the seven allegations of sexual harassment, in total there were 15 cases of alleged bullying, one case of alleged harassment on gender grounds, and five cases involving both alleged bullying and harassment: one involving race and ethnicity, one that was gender-based, two that were not defined and one with multiple factors, including race and ethnicity, gender and socio-economic status.

While seven cases in total were deemed ongoing, just two investigations had been upheld, with four not upheld.

In September 2020, Aoibhinn Ní'Shúilleabháin, Assistant Professor at the UCD School of Mathematics and Statistics, went public with her experiences at the university.

She said she had endured two years of workplace harassment and stalking and in late 2019, Prof. Hans-Benjamin Braun, 58, was charged with harassment under section 10 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997, relating to offences that occurred between May 2015 and July 2017, resulting in an order barring the professor from contacting Ní Shúilleabháin for five years.

Asst Prof. Ní'Shúilleabháin said she had reported the incidents to university authorities at an early stage and she later received a written apology from the President of UCD, Prof. Andrew Deeks.

Regarding the latest data revealed by FOI, she told the Irish Examiner: "The whole purpose of me going public was to highlight that this was an issue."

She said when she started to experience and later examine the issues she was struck by the "lack of specific processes for sexual harassment", which she said was different from other issues such as bullying, and so she found UCD's categorisation of the seven allegations to be a positive development.

"There was a big feedback to staff on the ground [at the time of her revelations] that there needed to be change and I would hope it has made it easier for people to report and I think the environment is much more proactive than it was," she said.

Asst Prof. Ní'Shúilleabháin said she had been invited onto the UCD Dignity and Respect Committee and added: "I would be heartened, in a strange way, by these numbers because I think it means people are coming forward.

"I think the climate has changed around talking about this in UCD, because it had to."

The UCD figures show that 11 staff made a complaint (including nine who claimed the incidents were online) and 17 students made a complaint (all bar five cases alleged to have occurred in-person rather than online).

As for those against whom the allegation was made, 15 were staff (including 10 relating to online activity) and 12 were students, with one unknown.

A total of 10 allegations involved a staff member complaining about another staff member, and 11 cases involved students complaining about other students.

Regarding allegations that did not proceed, the university said: "Not Progressed refers to cases that did progress to an investigation where the Screening Panel deemed they did not fall under the scope of the Dignity & Respect policy or the cases were Screened In and subsequently did not progress to an investigation due to a combination of factors."