One of Britain’s leading universities has been accused of a “witch hunt” by academics after staff were reprimanded over a “bullying” report.
University College London apologized to students and staff at its architecture school last month after an investigation found a decades-long “culture of unacceptable behaviour”.
The internal investigation followed complaints of sexism and racism on campus and led to the removal of some staff members from student and administrative duties.
But two dozen architects and academics have now hit out at a “witch hunt” at the Bartlett School Of Architecture, ranked in the UK’s top 10, which they say has created a “wave of denunciations”.
The strongly worded open letter from 24 experts claims that the Russell Group institution has launched a “Kafkaesque” investigation where “the accused do not know what they are accused of or who made the accusations”.
Signatories from UCL and other universities include Vicky Richardson, head of architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts and curator Drue Heinz, and architect Piers Gough.
The letter claims that “student ‘activists’ are now calling for more than 83 staff members to be fired for unspoken crimes” and a series of anonymous student Instagram posts “has led to something akin to a witch hunt.”
The UCL report described a “toxic culture” led by a circle of staff which it claimed had created a “boys’ club” and a fear of speaking out “woven into the fabric of the BSA over a long period of time”.
“Inherent power imbalance”
The 120-page report follows an investigation launched last October by intelligence firm Howlett Brown and includes almost 50 interviews, focus groups and a survey of 300 people.
It found that serious allegations “spanning the past three decades” included a number of staff allegedly making sexist comments and verbally attacking female students, in addition to alleged misogynistic, discriminatory and anti-Semitic behaviour.
The report also said there was an “inherent imbalance of power”, the report said the university’s personal relations policy, which has a blanket ban on relationships with under-18s, failed to protect students from sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior .
In interviews with the report’s authors, one current official claimed that it was “common knowledge that two [junior members of staff] stayed outside with the students and slept with one of the students”.
Among the “immediate actions” UCL took after the report was a review of the “critique” process, where students show their projects to lecturers and defend them, as it was a “significant source of upset and fear for students”, said the university.
But in response, the open letter said the report “does not comply with the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty'” and is “a public spectacle masquerading as a disciplinary process,” the Building Design website reports.
And the academics insisted that the “critique” review process was “important in preparing students for the practice of architecture” in the real world.
“Cultivating Fear”
“We are writing to express our solidarity with the majority of worthy and talented teachers who have been blacklisted on social media inspired by the report,” the open letter added.
“Howlett Brown’s report relied on anonymous and confidential reports and conflated serious allegations of sexism, racism and harassment with trivial allegations of informal communication between staff and students and studio reviews.
“Cultivating fear and blaming each other will not solve the problems that exist at UCL.”
A UCL spokesman said: “We know that the vast majority of staff at the BSA are well-liked, respected and valued by their students and peers and recognize the deep concern that some anonymous posts on social media cause.
“We want to be clear that we are unable to investigate allegations made on social media and they will not be considered as part of our disciplinary processes.
“As part of our duty of care to all staff and students, we have provided a dedicated helpline to offer advice, guidance and access to 24-hour support and wellbeing services.”
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