One of Ireland’s top academics has said that she was harassed by a colleague for over two years, which left her afraid to be alone on campus and almost resulted in her abandoning her academic career.
Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, a broadcaster and lecturer in University College Dublin (UCD), spoke to the Irish Times about her experience, which culminated in a court case last year. The colleague in question, Prof Hans-Benjamin Braun, was charged with harassment under section 10 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act, 1997.
The court issued an order barring Braun from contacting Ní Shúilleabháin for five years.
Ní Shúilleabháin said that she chose to speak out about the ordeal in order to draw attention to the issue of harassment of female university academics and students on university campuses in Ireland.
She contacted a human resources department in UCD several times about the harassment – which included Braun travelling across the country to see her at the hotel in which she was staying – before reporting the matter to the Gardaí at the university’s suggestion.
Braun regularly turned up at Ní Shúilleabháin’s office uninvited, as well as intruding on her conversations and meetings on campus.
Ní Shúilleabháin said: “I guess after all of the repeated incidents you just get very nerve-racked.”
“I was really just getting afraid with all of it, because even if something didn’t happen, you were always on edge wondering if it would happen, wondering when he would next turn up at a meeting, or at your office. The mental energy that it took, I really felt that it impacted on me personally, but on my professional work as well because you just couldn’t concentrate properly for all that time.”
She also recalled being “really, really, really afraid that he would turn up on my wedding day”.
UCD’s director of human resources Tristan Aitken told the Irish Times that the college “cannot comment on any individual case” and that “UCD had a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment”.
Braun told the newspaper that he had no comment to make. UCD confirmed that he no longer works at the university.
The National Women’s Council of Ireland commended Ní Shúilleabháin’s “courage and bravery” in speaking out about her experience.
Orla O’Connor, director of the Council, said in a statement: “We now need to see urgent action by all third level institutes to ensure both staff and students can be safe on campus.
“While progress has been made in many universities and colleges in this regard in relation to students, we now need a comprehensive approach that encompasses all staff and is recognised and reinforced through the governance structures of the institutions”, O’Connor added.
Earlier this year, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris today announced that he would be instructing universities to implement an action plan to tackle sexual violence and harrassment on campuses.
In a sitting of the National Advisory Committee in July, Harris described sexual violence on campuses as an “epidemic”, adding that he wants “the third level sector not to be a problem area but a leader”.
