Here’s the letter to BU faculty about a geology professor’s violation of the sexual harassment policy
David Marchant violated the policy and will be placed on paid administrative leave, the letter says.
Boston University Provost Jean Morrison told faculty in a letter on Friday that David Marchant, the geology professor accused of sexually harassing a graduate student during a research trip nearly two decades ago, has violated Boston University’s sexual harassment policy and will be placed on paid administrative leave.
The now 40-year-old former graduate student, Jane Willenbring, filed a Title IX complaint with BU in October 2016. After a 13-month investigation into Willenbring’s claims, university officials declared that Marchant’s “sexual harassment was sufficiently severe and pervasive so as to create a hostile learning and living environment,” Morrison wrote in the letter.
Throughout the course of the investigation, the university collected interviews and statements from more than 30 witnesses and reviewed more than 1,000 pages of records provided by Willenbring, Marchant, and other witnesses, Morrison wrote.
According to The Boston Globe, Marchant, a tenured faculty member, plans to appeal the findings of the investigation. However, the university will seek to “terminate his faculty appointment” if an appeal is unsuccessful, Morrison wrote.
Read Morrison’s letter in its entirety below:
