St Petersburg University graduates issued an open letter against harassment

Graduates of St. Petersburg State University published an open letter addressed to the rector of the university, Nikolai Kropachev, demanding that relations between teachers and students be declared unacceptable.

The authors of the letter consider harassment and sexual relations in a university environment unacceptable. In their opinion, this is harmful to the educational process and contradicts pedagogical ethics. They call for an open discussion of this topic and the development of legal norms that can eradicate such situations. They published a petition with this appeal in support of the open letter from Moscow State University students.

In their letter, the graduates draw attention to the fact that many of them either knew about love affairs between students and teachers, or themselves entered into such relationships. They emphasize that even if there was no psychological or physical violence between people, undergraduate or graduate students are still “in an inherently vulnerable position, which becomes especially dangerous in the event of conflict.”

In this regard, the open letter recalls the murder of graduate student Anastasia Eshchenko. St. Petersburg State University historian Oleg Sokolov, who had been in a love relationship with her since her studies, is suspected of murdering the girl. The authors of the petition emphasize that many knew about their connection, but did nothing.

“The unspoken norm at the university seems to be that sexual relationships between faculty and students are a private life between two people, seemingly outside the boundaries of professional university life. We consider this position irresponsible and in need of immediate adjustment at the level of university regulations,” the petition states.

The authors of the letter proposed a number of measures to combat harassment, everyday sexism, psychological and physical violence on the part of faculty and university administration. Thus, they call on the level of the St. Petersburg State University University Code to recognize relations between undergraduates, graduate students and university teachers as unacceptable.

In addition, the authors of the letter want to include protection of gender equality in this code. They also proposed making the university administration responsible for providing institutional and psychological support to students, graduate students and staff who find themselves in dependent relationships or who have suffered from abuse of power by faculty or superiors.

On May 8, the independent student magazine DOXApublished material about harassment and abuse by teachers at the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University. The material describes cases of harassment against female students by nine teachers.

On May 13, students, graduate students, teachers, and graduates of Moscow State University and other universities publishedan open letter in which they called for the introduction of new regulations for communication between professors and students.