School of Architecture students voiced concerns during a forum on Tuesday about Syracuse University professors who were anonymously accused of alleged misconduct on a nationally circulated Google Sheet that was sent to the school’s undergraduate body listserv last weekend.

The spreadsheet includes about 150 professors from across the country who have anonymously been accused of “alleged misconduct involving physical contact, harassment, or threats.”

The Tuesday architecture forum in Slocum Auditorium, planned before the spreadsheet’s release, was originally intended to be a discussion about general student concerns and design studio culture. Instead, the event mostly focused on the Google Sheet, which included on its list three current and two past SU architecture professors accused of misconduct that ranged from inappropriate touching to inappropriate comments about students’ appearances.

None of the current SU professors accused of misconduct responded to multiple requests for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Two School of Architecture professors were accused of inappropriately touching female students. One anonymous commenter alleged a current professor touched their collar when they were alone with the professor, according to the Google Sheet. Two anonymous commenters alleged the same professor had made comments about students’ physical appearances.

Two anonymous commenters accused a former architecture professor of being “touchy,” with one commenter alleging the professor often touched their hands and arms.

Michael Speaks, dean of the School of Architecture, said in a Wednesday email to the school that he was aware of the Google Sheet and found it concerning. Speaks also said that ensuring members of the school’s community are “welcomed, supported and empowered is intrinsic to our academic vision and mission.”

“I am disappointed to learn that some of our community members have had experiences that contradict these values,” he said.

Speaks said it “became obvious” after the Tuesday forum that the School of Architecture “must come together to assess where we are as a community and determine where we’d like to be.”

Multiple people present at the forum said students raised concerns about the university’s response to the allegations. Speaks made it clear the university could not take legal action in response to the claims on the spreadsheet if the allegations were anonymous, several forum attendees said.

“He kept saying how the school had to be very agnostic about the whole thing because there was nothing they could do,” said Hannah Michaelson, a Class of 2020 architecture student who attended Tuesday’s forum.

Faculty were still troubled by the situation, said Shreeya Shakya, a Class of 2019 architecture student who also attended the forum.

“The faculty were very clear in the fact that just because … they couldn’t take legal action didn’t mean they were not concerned,” she said.

Lori Brown, a School of Architecture professor, said the meeting lasted two hours, about twice as long as originally scheduled. Students were “incredibly concerned” and said there had been no previous public comment about the spreadsheet after it had circulated on the undergraduate listerv, Brown said.

The discussion about the Google Sheet eventually turned into a talk about larger cultural issues in the architecture industry and architecture education, forum attendees said.

“Clearly this is, as I had mentioned at the forum, it’s representative of a much larger cultural and social issue,” Brown said. “Our discipline is one among almost all of them who have incredibly embedded gender biases and inequities that need radical change.”

Speaks said he has reached out to others at SU to address issues he learned of and will follow recommendations he receives. The dean also said he plans to speak with many students in coming days and weeks to “get a better sense of how the School of Architecture is doing.”

Brown said faculty were not briefed on the spreadsheet before Tuesday’s forum, and some had not received any information about the list before Speaks sent an email addressing the concerns Wednesday afternoon.

A Title IX office representative will attend a School of Architecture faculty meeting later this week, Brown said. The school will also organize a second forum later this semester, she added.

— News Editor Sam Ogozalek and Asst. News Editor Kennedy Rose contributed reporting to this article.

Published on March 28, 2018 at 11:18 pm

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