BALTIMORE _ In a decisive move, Johns Hopkins University drove out two professors this summer for violating sexual misconduct policies _ and did not let them go quietly. An email sent to their departments named both men and made clear why they were leaving.
Hopkins ensured the allegations would not go unnoticed, a rare occurrence in the cloistered academic world where violators often have been allowed to slink away with little fanfare to other jobs.
The action shows how universities in Maryland and nationally are sometimes responding more forcefully to reports of sexual assault, often spurred by student activism.
"We're absolutely seeing more schools be willing to do investigations against professors," said Tanyka Barber, an associate with TNG Consulting, which works with colleges on such issues. "With #MeToo and Time's Up, they have no choice but to at least do the investigation, whereas in the past they may have been less likely to even do that."
But while activists who rallied on Hopkins and other campuses in Maryland agree some progress has been made, they believe universities are still moving too slowly and leaving students vulnerable as administrators catch up to a changing culture.
"It's been such a difficult and such an important struggle," said Heba Islam, a Hopkins graduate student who says the university took more than a year to dismiss a professor who she saw grabbing a student in a bar in May 2018.
The Hopkins action in July followed accusations last year of sexual misconduct at the University of Maryland Medical Center, where staff and faculty described an intolerable work environment in the vascular surgery department that drove women away. And the University of Maryland, Baltimore County is now defending itself in a lawsuit filed on behalf of students who allege that Baltimore County Police and university authorities intimidated and deceived them in an attempt to cover up credible accounts of sexual assault.
At each of these institutions, students and staff have raised their voices to demand change.
