Sociology Department’s Public Statement on Sexual Harassment

Sociology Department’s Public Statement on Sexual Harassment:

As Boğaziçi University’s Sociology Department, we publicly declare our firm commitment to take any instances of sexual harassment within the campus seriously. We will not tolerate or ignore any cases of sexual harassment. We encourage anyone who is a victim or witness to sexual harassment by a faculty member, university employee, or other students to inform our department, with the self-assurance that their statements will be kept confidential. It is our department’s utmost priority to support its students and to take every precaution necessary to ensure a safe learning environment.

Sexual harassment, as an act, does not merely comprise of the violation of physical or bodily boundaries. It can include acts of intimacy that blur the lines between faculty-student relationships as well as unsolicited sexual advances, conversation and jokes with sexual content or implications. Sexual harassment can also occur through online platforms. Intimate or sexual relationships -even with alleged mutual consent- between faculty members and students could not be accepted due the hierarchical nature of the faculty-student relationship institutionalized within the university setting.

As we are preparing for the new semester, it is extremely important that the “Cinsel Tacizi Önleme Koordinatörlüğü (CİTÖK)” (Sexual Harassment Prevention Office) is made functional again to ensure attentive and transparent ways of addressing sexual harassment within our university. Together with our emphasis on the importance of institutional mechanisms such as CİTÖK, we, as the Department of Sociology, once again publicly declare our firm stance in observing zero tolerance regarding sexual harassment and assume responsibility for its prevention and for the creation of a safe environment for our students.