Simon Fraser University is in a position to take these claims seriously. They have the name of the drop-out and the alleged offenders. (The names of the alleged offenders have been published elsewhere on the internet.) Names of other students who had sex with professors or were allegedly sexually harassed are also available.

The “drop-out” disclosed her name and the fact that she had been the target of sexual harassment on a “course-drop” form. In subsequent years, she continued to raise the issue. She mentioned it when a female SFU advisor criticized her for wanting to take courses at Emily Carr College of Art and transfer them into SFU for credit, saying, “You’re getting your degree at SFU, not Emily Carr!” Several years later, she left a voice mail for the Director of the Center for the Arts — she had difficulty getting hold of him in person — about the sexual harassment issue that had not yet been addressed. The Director responded by leaving her a voice mail requesting permission to allow one of the alleged offenders to listen to it. She granted permission via voice mail but never heard from the Director again.

Since then, she has been in contact with the SFU President’s office in writing on several occasions about the issue.

SFU could have investigated this case by simply arranging for students and alumni to be contacted and questioned. They did not do so. In fact, SFU has never once contacted the complainant about the issue!

There is also documentation in this file revealing that a formal complaint was lodged several years ago with Emily Carr College of Art and Design after they hired an alleged participant in the SFU Center for the Arts sexual harassment ring. The fact that this professor had sexual relations with a second year SFU student the year his spouse had his baby, would not have been difficult to confirm.  It was apparently known to students. There was an inner circle of students who socialized with professors, making it difficult for sexual relationships to be kept entirely secret. (This professor and his spouse split up and he got sexually involved with another Emily Carr instructor.)

The file in this case also contains the name of an administrator at the Vancouver Art Gallery who received a complaint about the Gallery’s promotion of an artist/professor while allegations of his involvement in the SFU sexual harassment ring — he was department head while a participant in the ring — remained uninvestigated.

You state that these sexual harassment “claims cannot be taken seriously.” I think the question that taxpayers should ask is why have they NOT YET been taken seriously.