The Faculty of Political Sciences within the SNSPA has posted a message addressed to its students in which it undertakes to take measures to make the environment in the faculty a safe one, sheltered from gender discrimination and sexual harassment. In response to the “everyone knew” thesis, the Political Science professors defend themselves by saying that they were just rumours, the only certain information being related to the sexist statements made by Alfred Bulai in the course.
“Dear students, dear students of the Faculty of Political Sciences, in the context of the recently published testimonies, please also read our message. The reaction is unacceptably long overdue. The rigors of communication in the context of the ongoing investigations limited our ability to express ourselves to some extent”, says the message posted on politice.ro.
The academic staff of the Faculty is committed to taking measures to remedy the problems that have allowed the perpetuation of cases of sexual harassment of female students at SNSPA so that it becomes a safe environment. At the same time, a justification is offered related to the lack of measures against Alfred Bulai.
“We feel obliged to provide some clear answers to the all too common claim that ‘everybody knew.’ Many of us knew about some of Alfred Bulai’s sexist, racist and homophobic statements in the courses. Otherwise, I was only hearing rumours. We have received no complaints. What I “knew” is not what we learned with indignation and disgust from the Snoop.ro report. The scale and gravity of the situation, as detailed by the survivors of the alleged abuses, is beyond any imagination”, says the message addressed to Political Science students.
The faculty justifies itself by citing the fact that rumors could not constitute a sufficient legal basis for sanctioning a person.
“But this argument is not an excuse. More can always be done. We do not, individually, have the power to censor the behavior of a colleague, but what we will do from now on, as a team and as an institution, defines us more than what we have not done so far”, the management of the Faculty of Political Sciences, whose dean commits is associate professor Cristian Pârvulescu.
“We cannot speak for all the teaching staff who teach or have taught in the past at this faculty, but we must assume that we share a set of common values and that we must act in their spirit, with measures to guarantee the prevention and combating of any forms of abuse”, states the quoted source. The management of the Faculty announces that it has three directions of action in the following period:
- the development of a special institutional strategy for the prevention of harassment and any form of abuse;
- the institutionalization of concrete prevention activities through training programs at the faculty level;
- carrying out a rigorous analysis to substantiate all the necessary measures that we can adopt in the FSP to guarantee under all aspects a safe environment, based on mutual respect.
“We have received your messages and we understand your concern. A relationship with students based on trust is essential for us. We convey to you and your families the fact that we consider unacceptable and extremely serious abusive attitude and behavior in general, even more so sexual, emotional and psychological abuse, by using the relationship of power and authority, in a space educational. We are aware that such abuses affect the dignity and fundamental rights of the person and destroy the trust of students, students and parents in the university system”, the message of the Faculty of Political Sciences also says.
Professor Alfred Bulai (61 years old) was suspended from all positions at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies on Tuesday. The decision was taken in the Senate of the University one day after the investigation by journalists from Snoop.ro, who published testimonies of some female students accusing him of sexual abuse.
The management of the SNSPA also says that there has never been a complaint against Alfred Bulai, submitted to the dean’s office or to other forums in the university. Also on Tuesday, 36 professors, including Elena Trifan, PhD in sociology, associate teaching staff at SNSPA and former student of Alfred Bulai between 2008-2011, signed an open letter addressed to the management of the Faculty of Political Sciences requesting “the resignation immediate” of the university professor.