Harvard Professor Will Retire After Chronicle Investigation Revealed Harassment Allegations

By Tom Bartlett And Nell Gluckman
Chronicle of Higher Education
March 06, 2018

https://www.chronicle.com/article/harvard-professor-will-retire/242753/

Jorge Domínguez, Harvard professor, in December 1993. Photo by Harvard U. Archives

A prominent Harvard professor and former vice provost accused of groping, kissing, and other inappropriate behavior by close to 20 women announced on Tuesday that he would retire on June 30. Jorge Domínguez, a professor of government, was placed on administrative leave pending a review after a Chronicle investigation published last week.

“I am retiring from my job at Harvard at the end of this semester,” Domínguez wrote in an email to colleagues. “It has been a privilege to serve the university.” He also noted that he is not teaching this semester and has stepped down from his administrative roles.

Domínguez’s administrative leave forbids him to set foot on Harvard’s campus without formally requesting permission from university officials. Under the sexual-harassment policy in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, penalties for professors found guilty “may range from reprimand to dismissal.”

“I want to be very clear that Domínguez’s forthcoming retirement does not change the full and fair process of review that is currently underway," Michael D. Smith, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said in a written statement. “He remains on administrative leave until it is concluded.”

Harvard’s president, Drew G. Faust, weighed in on the fallout from the Domínguez revelations during a meeting on Tuesday of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. In her remarks, she acknowledged the “real sense of hurt, disappointment, and upset that has been expressed about the situation and about Harvard’s response.”

Faust, who in 2007 became the first woman to lead the university, cited its progress in dealing with sexual harassment but said there was more to be done. “We need to foster an environment where those who look to us for leadership and guidance feel comfortable coming forward when lines have been crossed,” she said.

The Chronicle investigation first revealed the breadth of harassment claims against Domínguez, who was once vice provost for international affairs. As of Sunday, 18 women had publicly said that his behavior had made them uncomfortable. After learning from The Chronicle that more women had come forward, Harvard placed Domínguez on administrative leave “pending a full and fair review of the facts and circumstances regarding allegations that have come to light.”

Allegations of sexual harassment against Domínguez span nearly four decades, with the first coming in 1979 and the latest in 2015. Domínguez previously told The Chronicle that his actions may have been misinterpreted. “I do not go around making sexual advances,” he said.

Terry Karl believes that allowing him to retire under those circumstances “sends the wrong signal.” Domínguez was found guilty of “serious misconduct” by Harvard in 1983 for his sexual harassment of Karl, then a junior professor in the government department, and she subsequently left the university. “Harvard needs to take visible actions, which includes a transparent investigation and clear consequences,” she said.

Charna Sherman agrees. Sherman, who was an undergraduate government-and-history major in 1979, said Domínguez would touch her inappropriately and once kissed her on the lips in his office. “If that’s the only outcome, that’s unsatisfactory,” she said.

Like Karl, Sherman is pushing the university to investigate thoroughly all the accusations against Domínguez, and she has written a letter to the chair of the government department, Jennifer L. Hochschild, and the provost, Alan M. Garber, calling for exactly that. “The focus isn’t just about him,” she said, referring to Domínguez, “but about who enabled this to occur for that many decades.”

Suzanna Challen, who earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 2011, said she hopes the university will continue to investigate Domínguez’s actions, and not consider his retirement to be the end of the case. Harvard should deliver a clear message that this behavior will be punished, she said. According to Challen, Domínguez touched her butt in 2006 during a meeting in his office shortly before her general exams.

“While I am glad that he’ll be off campus and away from students, I don’t think that [alone] would represent an appropriate response on the university’s part for what he’s done over the past four decades,” Challen said. She and others have been in touch with Harvard’s Title IX office this week.

Nienke Grossman, who earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1999, said she is “somewhat horrified” by the fact that Domínguez’s retirement is not effective immediately. “I find it deeply problematic that he will continue to collect his salary for the next five months,” she said.

As more women have come forward, many of them have said that they spoke to higher-ups about Domínguez’s behavior even if they didn’t file formal complaints. For Karl, whose own harassment case was well known to administrators back in 1983, questions remain about the university’s actions, or lack thereof. “What that suggests,” she said, “is that Harvard knew or should have known about the conduct of this professor and the hostile environment that he created.”