Forty-three alumni and students of Crandall University have signed an open letter calling on the board of governors of the Canadian Baptist school to address allegations of sexual harassment on campus.
Crandall University was founded in 1949 by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, which continues to support the university and elects its board of governors. The university is located in Moncton, the most populous city in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic center of the Maritime Provinces.
The open letter, published April 8, says on March 28, “an Instagram account began sharing anonymous posts outlining what appear to be firsthand student accounts of sexual harassment occurring on the Crandall University campus. These accounts outline, in significant detail, inappropriate, sexually driven conduct displayed on multiple occasions by at least one faculty member of Crandall University.”
“We, as Crandall alumni and students, are appalled by these reports.”
The letter states: “We, as Crandall alumni and students, are appalled by these reports. … From current students, we understand that related complaints were made to Crandall administrators this past fall, however to the best of our knowledge the administration took no concrete action and students were told their complaints had no merit. Further we understand that students feel unsafe reporting using the current sexual harassment policy.”
The university’s website lists no media relations contact. A phone call from BNG to the school’s executive offices has not been returned. BNG could locate no evidence of a university response to the open letter nearly a week after it was posted.
A decade ago, the Baptist university made headlines for what critics called its “anti-gay” hiring policy.
What’s at issue now is the school’s sexual harassment policy, which the letter signers believe “does not allow for anonymous tips, encourages a 48-hour deadline to file a harassment complaint, and imposes a hard one-year limit on filing a complaint.”
“Most egregiously, this policy requires victims to confront their alleged harassers in person and engage in a mediation process, a practice which is completely out of step with current trauma-informed best practice,” the letter says.
Among other criticisms, the letter says the current policy:
- Does not recognize the “power difference” between staff and students.
- Does not “put any safeguards in place to make students feel protected while reporting.”
- Requires students who want to report harassment to initiate that report through “staff at another university.”
- Vests too much power in the university’s President’s Council.
- Includes “no regular harassment education for students.”
Due to insufficient transparency and accountability, “profound change is needed, starting with a clear and public acknowledgement of these allegations,” the letter states.
The signers call for three specific actions by the board of governors, beginning with an independent investigation of the allegations by the outside group GRACE (Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian Environment), updating the sexual harassment policy, and ending the “Carver Model” of governance that “promotes a rigid focus on the president as the board’s only reporting employee.”
The signers indicate the governance model could be why trustees are unaware of the allegations being made.
“Although the allegations being made on Instagram are horrible, many current and recent students are not shocked because rumors of this nature have been widely known by the student community for some time,” the letter states. “If the board was less well informed on these issues than the student body, they may wish to ask themselves why that is the case.”
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