The University of Seville (US) has decided to expel “during an academic course or semester” two students from the Faculty of Geography and History who distributed posters with the face and name of a professor from Hispalense, who is the subject of a internal investigation for “sexualizing” and “threatening” female students, according to the disciplinary files to which this newspaper has had access.
Last April, a group of students from the Faculty of History spread on social networks a pamphlet that their classmates had distributed in the classrooms, anonymously denouncing that “a scholarship holder from the Department of Prehistory and Archeology sexualizes female students and suspends to the whole class, high on cocaine.”
The accusation against this predoctoral scholarship recipient of University Teacher Training (FPU) awarded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities had already been brought to the attention of the Rectorate of Hispalense which, at the end of last February, opened an internal investigation to clarify the facts. Following the information provided by the Andalusian edition of elDiario.es, the University itself issued a statement informing that it had also initiated disciplinary proceedings against this teacher – who is not a full professor at the US and is currently separated from teaching – upon verifying “evidence relating to new facts” that would corroborate the students’ complaints about sexual harassment.
In this context, the Student Union and the Libres y Combativas association called a rally “for a university free of machismo” for April 25, in solidarity with the students who had reported sexual harassment by a professor. The days before the demonstration, as a call to join the call, members of the two student organizations distributed posters with the image and full name of the teacher on record, also pointing out as “accomplices” the dean of the Faculty of Geography and History and the rector of Hispalense.
These posters are the reason for the provisional expulsion of the two students. The academic institution decided to reprimand them for participating in the distribution and disseminating the professor’s personal data, and on May 30 and June 21, disciplinary proceedings were initiated. At that time, relations between the student movement and the Rectorate were tense due to the pro-Palestinian encampment that resulted in a violent eviction by the National Police.
Open investigation and judicial procedure
After taking statements from the registered students and dismissing the allegations presented by both, the instructors of the University of Seville in charge of the case have resolved, at the beginning of this month of October, to sanction the two with the “loss of rights of partial enrollment during a course or an academic semester.”
Waiting to know if this resolution becomes effective (the students have once again presented allegations), the Student Union and the Libre y Combativas association demonstrated this Tuesday to try to stop what they consider an act of “repression” by of the Rectorate. In the opinion of the students, the files opened against their classmates are part of a “persecution” by the academic institution against student organizations, with the aim of intimidating them with a clear message: “If we denounce machismo, they can kick us out of the university, in order to silence us.”
The reason stated in the file, however, is “having distributed offensive and defamatory pamphlets at points in the rectoral building against a member of the university community.” The professor in question has been removed from his job at the US and is being investigated by the university itself, in addition to being immersed in judicial proceedings for alleged crimes of gender violence, as stated in the rector’s resolution.
Sources from the University of Seville consulted by this newspaper defend that the distribution of posters with the image of a professor who is accused of acts “that have not yet been proven, neither judicially nor in any other instance” constitutes a “vexatious action against the honor of the professor that would not be protected by freedom of expression”, since the expressions expressed are “slanderous and slanderous” and contain a “reckless disregard for the truth.”
Hence, they resolve to temporarily expel the students for “disseminating personal and private data” attributing to them “facts constituting crimes” with “absolute disregard for the presumption of innocence” and, furthermore, for “accusing the dean of the Faculty of complicity.” and concealment of the acts that the scholarship holder had committed when an internal investigation and a file had been initiated.”
Final stretch of the procedure
After the protest held by students this Tuesday morning in the old Tobacco Factory – headquarters of the Rectorate – shouting “reporting machismo is not a crime”, the University of Seville has stressed that “the freedom of expression cannot in any case protect offenses or insults.” Likewise, Hispalense has recalled that the disciplinary procedure of these two students remains open, so it cannot yet be stated that any sanction has been imposed against them.
The student organizations now consider the expulsion to be complete, as they suspect that the case instructors are going to once again reject the ten allegations presented by each of the students in the last step before the resolution is made final. In their written statement of allegations, the university students defend that “participating in a complaint action cannot in any way be the subject of a Disciplinary File. Especially when it is an absolutely reasonable protest and with obvious relevant factors.” And they add: “That the University of Seville acts disciplinaryly against those who support the victims and denounce the abusers and protects as a priority the ‘honor’ of the alleged abuser, is at the very least worthy of deep and necessary reflection.”
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