‘Hello Nicole,’ he said.
‘Hi,’ I replied, although I thought, did I tell him my name?
As the conversation went on, I asked him what he taught on campus.’
He told me that he wasn’t a professor.
Reason told me he must work on another level with the University, so I asked him if he worked for UT.
‘No’ he replied.
Okay, I thought.
‘Do you know anyone who works here?’ I asked.
Once more he replied no.
He said he came to the University to ‘be around the young people.’That should’ve been a warning, but I felt sorry for the guy. I thought he was a harmless older man.
Time passed, and he started to touch my shoulder, which I brushed off as him being nice. Then he gave me his number, stopped touching my shoulder and started kissing my cheek.
I went from thinking he was a kind old man, to a dirty old man.
I later discovered another girl I knew got the same creepy treatment from the guy, so we went to the security office together.
By that time, I stopped going to the cafeteria at certain times. He stayed in the cafeteria for hours; when I tried to sit somewhere else, he would follow me. Once, he followed me to the sandwich line though he already had a sandwich at his table!
Usually, I set anyone who bothers me straight, but I thought it would be hard yelling at an innocent-seeming man. But this is how sexual harassers thrive.
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in order for an action to be deemed sexual harassment, ‘the harasser’s conduct must be unwelcome.’
It is the ‘unwelcome’ idea that causes many women to lose sexual harassment cases.
‘ For example, in her article about the ethics of sexual harassment, Anita Superson cited a court case, Swentek v. US Air: a flight attendant suffered inappropriate gestures and language on her airline but lost her case.
She had been open about her sex life before those encounters; Superson quotes the court ruling: ‘she was the kind of person who could not be offended by such comments and therefore welcomed them generally.’
Though the woman filed charges against her harassers’mdash;an obvious indication the actions were unwelcome’mdash;the court decided she was lying and wanted to be jeered.
In this society, if a woman dresses ‘provocatively’ she ‘welcomes’ and deserves sexual harassment.
My first encounter with harassment occurred when I was hardly sexually appealing: a twelve-year-old, flat-chested, self-proclaimed ‘tomboy,’ yet I was subjected to comments too inappropriate to print.
‘ Fortunately, in my more recent situation, the good security guards at UT’ asked if I felt uncomfortable and took care of the issue.
The man was charged with trespassing and will be arrested if he returns to campus.
I will not allow someone’s age or seeming harmlessness block the just path. Most harassers make a point to seem harmless and nice to spark doubt in their victim.
If anyone makes you feel uncomfortable, there is no doubt they need to be reported and informed that their actions must stop.
Don’t hesitate as I did.
Let’s take steps to end the vicious cycle of sexual harassment for good.
If you or someone you know has or thinks they are the victims of sexual harassment please contact the Campus Safety and Security Office located between Res Com and Thomas Parking Garage.
Call from campus: x3333
Call off campus: (813) 251-5133
Nicole Robinson may be reached at nrobinson@ut.edu.
Correction to article in print edition: Online version of this article omits ‘Did he know anyone at UT…,’ after it had already been stated two lines before.
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