In his March 1 Forum column (“Flaws could sink harassment policy,” p. 5), Professor Banzhaf states that the majority of law school faculty who considered the proposal on sexual harassment found it “deeply flawed.” In fact, a minority of Law School faculty expressed opposition to the policy. The member of the law faculty who actually teaches employment law has supported the administration’s proposal.
The Law School already has a sexual harassment policy. Students in the Law School sit on the Discrimination and Harassment Committee, which receives complaints, and those complaints can be filed anonymously. The policy proposed by administrators is more conservative than the Law School’s.
The notion that the proposed policy would prevent classroom discussions about rape, abortion or gender roles in history is completely without foundation. I discuss those subjects in my classes as a teacher of women’s history; I would hardly support a policy that would prevent such discussion.
-Cynthia Harrsion
professor of history and women’s studies
