Study Finds a Hostile Environment for Women in the University of Colorado’s Philosophy Department

The University of Colorado at Boulder has released an independent study which reports that sexual harassment was common in the university’s philosophy department. As a result of the finding, the university removed the department chair (although he will remain as a faculty member in the department) and suspended all graduate student admissions to the department until at least the fall of 2015.

The study was conducted by the Committee on the Status of Women of the American Philosophical Association. The report found that 15 complaints had been filed since 2007 and that women students were leaving the department in large numbers.

The study found that many incidents of sexual harassment occurred n social occasions when faculty and graduate students were engaging in heavy drinking. The authors of the report wrote, “It is our strong conclusion that the department maintains an environment with unacceptable sexual harassment, inappropriate sexualized unprofessional behavior and divisive uncivil behavior.”