Sexual Harassment and Misconduct

September 25, 2018

To the Yale Community,

Sexual misconduct, including sexual harassment, deeply harms those who experience it and is incompatible with the trust, respect, and collaboration that are critical to the mission of an academic institution. As the vital national conversation about sexual misconduct continues to unfold across nearly every sector, I write to reaffirm that such behavior has no place on this or any other campus.

In my career as a professor, dean, provost, and now university president, it is evident to me that the abuse of trust and violation of personhood that sexual misconduct represents is corrosive to the enterprise of discovery and the formation of community. It is vitally important that we uphold high standards of conduct at our university; these standards form the bedrock foundation of all that we aspire to be. As the conversation about this important topic proceeds, I welcome open and robust dialogue here at Yale about how we can foster a safe and inclusive community.

At Yale, our commitment to find better ways to prevent and address sexual misconduct goes back many years, and together we have made real progress by providing various means for those who experience sexual misconduct to have their voices heard. Our Sexual Misconduct Response and Prevention website highlights resources that represent some of the important results of that work.

We will continue to build on our years of focused effort to prevent and address sexual misconduct on our campus. Together, we can ensure that Yale is a place where all can learn, work, and thrive.

Sincerely,

Peter Salovey
President
Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology