A recently introduced anti-bullying policy at the University of Wisconsin is causing concern among faculty and staff, who worry that an abuse of the policy may infringe on free speech and thinking.
After realizing UW did not have any standard procedures to deal with instances of harassment between faculty members in the academic environment, two faculty members outlined a process for dealing with those instances.
Soyeon Shim, dean of UW’s School of Human Ecology, and François Ortalo-Magné, dean of the UW business school, introduced the policy that the Faculty Senate passed in November.
Donald Downs, a UW political science professor, said he believes the policy is good ‘as written,’ but has concerns about the way it might be improperly applied in the future and, as a result, infringe on certain freedoms of speech.
“You can have the best policy in the world and people can apply it in a way which will be a problem,” Downs said. “The question is how it gets applied. In the wrong hands, it can be abused, and that’s where the concern really is, in my view.”
Downs said he is not certain how widespread the problem of bullying is between faculty and administration members, and that he personally has not seen any instances of bullying.
“I haven’t seen it much,” he said. “I have been privy to some cases where some faculty have claimed that some administrative people have been bullying in their positions — not that many, but it has happened.”
Downs said he believes that in the several months it has been in place, the anti-bullying policy has not been used improperly.
In an Inside Higher Ed article, Shim said she thought a policy could help jumpstart a campaign for civility.
“I strongly believe that nobody excels in an environment that is not civil,” she said. “Civility is needed to maximize talent.”
Faculty objections revolve around the fact that with thousands of personal interactions on campus daily, the “potential for mischief” is great unless the limits of the policy are strictly enforced, Downs wrote in an essay on Minding The Campus.
Shim portrayed the policy as a general civility policy even though the policy expressly denies that intent, Downs said in the essay.
“If Dean Shim’s comments reflect the intentions or orientations of individuals who will be bringing claims or who will be involved in the enforcement process, the policy will prove to be a mistake,” Downs wrote in the essay.
Shim declined an interview, stating in an email to The Badger Herald “it has now been turned over to the provost’s office and the university committee.” The provost’s office was unable to be reached for comment.
Downs is an adviser to The Badger Herald.
