Hiding in plain sight: Faculty sexual misconduct in higher education

In the wake of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, the United States is seeing a major shift in women empowerment and the national spotlight has been placed on sexual harassment, assault, and stalking. This includes how faculty at institutions of higher education (IHEs) exploit power dynamics with their students through various forms of sexual misconduct. Faculty sexual misconduct (FSM) is connected to the larger phenomenon of gendered institutions and complicated reporting procedures through Title IX. Scholarship currently shows that students who experience FSM undergo shared environmental space trauma, academic disruptions, and negative health decline. The purpose of the present study is to better understand the unique forms of FSM experienced and both individual and institutional outcomes following FSM. This study used a mixed-methodological approach that included collection of data through the online survey provider Qualtrics and Zoom interviews. The survey collected basic demographic information, total number of and type of FSM experiences, perpetrator gender and relationship, institutional information, reporting status, the Institutional Betrayal and Support Questionnaire Version 1 was given to gauge institutional betrayal scores, and a qualitative block to describe FSM experience(s) was voluntary. Those interested in participating in an interview could put their email address and pseudonym at the end of the survey. Interviews were in a semi-structured format based on narrative inquiry. Findings showed that participants experienced a various forms of FSM, multiple negative mental health outcomes, low reporting rate (26%), and a mean institutional betrayal score of 106 out of an index of 180. Qualitative findings highlighted six main themes: whisper networks, overriding boundaries, power, support, aftermath, and reporting. Insights from the current study can broaden the understanding of FSM survivors while simultaneously point IHE administrators to policy changes that hold faculty members accountable and further protect the students of their campus. Implications from this study include FSM specific training for all students, staff, and faculty, improved statements in faculty handbooks that outline FSM and specific disciplinary actions for violating the policy, flexibility with withdrawal dates and courses with pass/fail grades for students who experienced FSM from the professor of those courses, and improved hiring practices to prevent faculty from escaping allegations of FSM to another institution.