Syracuse University’s Title IX office will be administering a climate assessment at the School of Architecture “in the coming weeks,” Dean Michael Speaks announced in a school-wide email on Friday.

The email comes after students at a Tuesday forum voiced concerns about SU architecture 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 more than 180 men architects, many of them professors in the United States, who have anonymously been accused of “alleged misconduct involving physical contact, harassment, or threats.”

As of now, five current and two past SU architecture professors on the Google Sheet have been 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.

Speaks said the climate assessment, administered by the Office of Equal Opportunity, Inclusion and Resolution Services, which handles Title IX cases, will allow officials to “understand how our students, faculty and staff are currently experiencing the School of Architecture.” Representatives of the office will also attend a faculty meeting Friday, Speaks said.

Two School of Architecture professors on the Google Sheet were accused of inappropriately touching students. One anonymous commenter alleged a current professor touched their collar when they were alone with the professor, according to the Google Sheet. They alleged the same professor had also 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.

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

Speaks in an email to the school on Wednesday said 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.

Published on March 30, 2018 at 1:21 pm

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