Sexual misconduct: Harvard ousts ‘genius’ economist. And, he isn’t the only one
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Top-of-the-Line Harvard economist and one of the most promising African-American educationists, Roland G. Fryer, was asked to go an unpaid leave after allegations charging him with sexual misconduct with female colleagues were established in an internal probe. At age 30, Fryer scorched the record books by becoming the youngest African-American to have been handed a tenure at the prestigious institute.
Forbes reported Fryer has been placed on suspension with immediate effect till he serves the duration of the leave. Fryer was charged with sending lewd texts to and indulging in suggestive actions amounting to inappropriate conduct with female colleagues. The probe initiated into the allegations was revealing of Fryer’s engagement in “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature” with co-workers of his research lab EdLabs.
Fryer is a celebrated economist hailed as a genius. He had founded the Education innovation Laboratory or EdLabs as is popularly known to help close the achievement gap of “minority students and students living in poverty”. The EdLabs site claims to provide reliable scientific evidence to support good decisions in education in the United States. He was awarded a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2011.
Fryer has denied the allegations and termed them as “patently false”. He refuted the insinuations and denied he has ever harassed or discriminated against any female colleague.
Fryer, unfortunately, does not come across as an aberration in the Western education world. Several of his peers in colleges and universities of America have been charged with and/or penalized for sexual misconduct at workplace. In May this year, Harvard stripped Professor Jorge Dominguez of his Emeritus status and reportedly banned him from the campus after investigations into a 36-year-old case of sexual misconduct revealed it to be true.
The political science professor has since been banned from the college, The Standford Daily reported. The charges were leveled by a former colleague and Stanford professor Emerita Terry Karl in 1983. She was a fellow faculty at the Harvard then.
In another case that rocked the University of Georgia early this year, math professor William H Kazez was placed on paid administrative leave after charges of sexual assault were brought by multiple students and faculty members against him. The university banned him from taking any classes in March this year. He was also barred from appearing on the campus till the time the investigations into the allegations are over.
