Dear Colleagues:

The recent revelations concerning the sexual predatory behavior of Harvey Weinstein, first reported in The New York Times and then further detailed in The New Yorker and many articles thereafter, have sparked a necessary and overdue dialogue about the endemism of sexual violence in our society.

This reporting has resulted in a cascade of personal stories, shared through both the media and the viral hashtag #MeToo. It has also sparked necessary discussions about the burdens still placed on survivors to fight for visibility. In addition, the consistently high rates of assault among women of color and queer, non-binary, and trans people, and the ways in which some harassment experiences are privileged over others, remain often unacknowledged concerns.

I have written previously about the inseparability of gender equity from the aspirations of public health. Our core values as a school require that we confront the ways in which the systemic devaluing of women perpetuates sexual assault and harassment, both in the US and globally, and that we work to change the institutions that normalize and abet these aggressions.

In order to engage in necessary conversation around this topic, we will shortly be enacting a series of gender justice talking circles, facilitated by our Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion Yvette Cozier.  More information will be following shortly.

It is also important that our students, faculty, and staff know the resources available to them to report any experienced assault or harassment. As detailed in a recent communication from Provost Jean Morrison, the university’s  Sexual Misconduct/Title IX Policy and Student Sexual Misconduct Procedures remain unchanged despite the issuing of new guidance from the US Department of Education. The Sexual Assault Response & Prevention Center (SARP) also provides confidential support and promotes prevention through educational programs. The Office of the Ombuds is another safe space in which BU community members can discuss sexual impropriety off the record.

The pervasiveness of sexual violence across time, place, and demographics has been, and should continue to be, a concern for the public health community. Yet its ubiquity can also lead to complacency, an uncomfortable truth that demands greater acknowledgment in our circles. These most recent revelations should remind us, yet again, of the need to return to our knowledge and our values—what we know, and what we know to be important—in order to ensure that gender-based violence and enduring power inequities become unacceptable.

Warmly,

Sandro

Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH
Dean, Robert A. Knox Professor
sgalea@bu.edu

Acknowledgement: I am grateful to Meaghan Agnew and Dean Yvette Cozier for their contributions to this message.

View all announcements