Of course, I can’t change all of society, but as Vice President for Personnel Development and Leadership, I am responsible for making sure that we do everything we can to improve the situation at ETH and to create a climate that does everything possible to prevent sexual harassment. The Executive Board is clear on this: ETH Zurich has zero tolerance for sexual harassment and will take action against it.
Directly addressing deficiencies – all the time
We know that a marked power imbalance and pronounced hierarchies are risk factors that can permit sexual harassment to go unchecked. These risk factors are present in the university environment – and ETH is no exception. Declaring today Sexual Harassment Awareness Day is only one of the ways that Swiss universities are showing they now understand that they must address this issue and not look the other way.
At ETH Zurich, we’ve been working hard at this for several years now through campaigns, contact and advice services, training courses, and more. The goal is always to raise awareness and ultimately bring about cultural change at ETH. While these developments are certainly positive, it’s also clear that despite all we’ve already done and everything we’ve achieved, the fight against sexual harassment is never over. What’s required is unrelenting, active engagement with the topic of sexual harassment together with a continuous process of learning and adjustment in those areas where ETH still has room for improvement.
An even lower threshold for reporting
But how can we tell where there are problems at ETH? Are our contact and advice services sufficient for this, or do we need other instruments? These are questions that my team and I ask ourselves constantly. We have recognised that the threshold for reporting cases of sexual harassment to ETH needs to be even lower. So at the beginning of April, we’re launching an online form that people can use to file an anonymous report if they have experienced sexual harassment at ETH – either as a victim or as a witness.
What’s particularly important to us in this new project is that we’re encouraging everyone who comes forward anonymously to tell us what we could improve and to put specific suggestions to us. We’re convinced that we all stand to benefit a great deal from these people’s experience. The goal of this survey is to further develop ETH as an organisation, to see where we need to strengthen our issue management and where we should take preventive action.
