A professor of journalism at Ohio University will face a loss of tenure and/or dismissal proceedings by the University Professional Ethics Committee, or UPEC.
On Dec. 6, Executive Vice President and Provost Chaden Djalali accepted the UPEC’s judgement that Yusuf Kalyango’s conduct “presents adequate cause” to recommend that the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism initiate loss of tenure and/or dismissal proceedings, according to a letter signed by Djalali.
Djalali received the UPEC recommendations in November.
Through an Office of Equity and Civil Rights Compliance investigation that concluded in August, Kalyango, director of the Institute for International Journalism, was found responsible for sexual harassment by quid pro quo and sexual harassment by hostile work environment toward a graduate student last year, according to a previous Post report.
The student had been hired as a staff member in spring 2017 for two upcoming programs run by Kalyango when Kalyango offered the student an opportunity to travel abroad with him.
Just two days before Kalyango and the student were scheduled to depart, Kalyango told her they would have to share a hotel room because there was only one was available. The student rejected that as inappropriate, and Kalyango tried to convince her otherwise, according to the report. Kalyango ended up staying in another city.
An ECRC investigator found that there was no “reasonable, non-sexual rationale” for the two to share a hotel room.
After the student rejected Kalyango’s invitation to stay in the same hotel room, he began to treat her differently, according to the report.
In July, Kalyango sent the student an email accusing her of falsifying evaluations for the summer program in order to make herself look better and him worse, and entering incomplete and inaccurate data. The student resigned from her position in the fall program Kalyango directed, according to a previous Post report.
Kalyango has the right to appeal Djalali’s decision to OU President Duane Nellis within 21 days, according to the letter.
