We’d like to hear about your experience with misconduct on campus, or if you were subjected to it but did not or could not file a report. We need help understanding flaws in the systems intended to hold perpetrators accountable.
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We are spending this year reporting on how Illinois colleges and universities address sexual misconduct allegations against faculty and administrators.
We know some people do not believe the process works as it should. In one case, an administrator resigned from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2017 amid sexual harassment allegations. He was then hired by another university, which subsequently fired him after it learned about the allegations through media reports.
In another case, a faculty member at UIUC who was found to have violated the stalking provision of the sexual misconduct policy was allowed to quietly retire and collect her salary for 10 months before her departure took effect. (Both professors denied wrongdoing.)
Top UIUC officials say they will stop using confidentiality agreements in cases of misconduct going forward.
We’d like to hear about your experience with misconduct on campus and whether the systems set up to adjudicate complaints are working as they should.
We’d also like to hear from you if you were subjected to sexual harassment, violence or misconduct but did not or could not report it. Fill out our questionnaire.
We will try to follow up with as many of you as possible, but we may not be able to follow up with everyone who shares their story with us. We may ask for additional information to help us fully understand the events and the university’s response. We understand that your privacy is important. We won’t voluntarily publish any personal information you share without your explicit permission. If you’d rather talk on Signal or WhatsApp, which are more secure, send a message to 347-244-2134 or email misconduct@propublica.org.
Update, Oct. 10, 2019: This story has been updated to reflect that the callout is being done solely by ProPublica and not in partnership with NPR Illinois. For more information, read this column from ProPublica.
