NSF to introduce policy to thwart harassment

Christian Ott was set to start work at the University of Turku, in southwestern Finland, in early March. But a few weeks before his start date, the astronomer’s contract was revoked in response to protests surrounding his past behavior. The previous August, Ott had resigned his professorship at Caltech because he’d been found to have harassed two female graduate students.

Cases that are handled poorly, like Ott’s, may be the ones more likely to gain a high profile, notes Sherry Yennello, a nuclear chemist at Texas A&M University. When a university handles allegations of sexual harassment well, she says, “a trail of bread crumbs is created, and no one hears about it unless it happens again.”

Now NSF is strengthening its role in ensuring that research institutions clamp down on sexual—or any type of—harassment. Under a new policy, universities and other organizations that receive NSF grants will be required to report findings of harassment and must maintain unambiguous standards of behavior and clear pathways for reporting violations. NSF will also expand its internet resources about harassment.

University leaders and heads of other NSF grantee organizations were advised of the harassment policy on 8 February. NSF will soon post the full plan on the Federal Register for 60 days, during which the public may comment; after the comments are considered, a final version will go into effect.

“Everybody has to act within their authority and be accountable for what they do within their authority,” says NSF director France Córdova. “I am hoping that this will prompt the institutions we fund to take notice.”

The policy applies to researchers at NSF-funded telescopes, ships, field sites, conferences held by other parties, and more. “The people who get our money are in positions of trust, and they have to comport themselves in a responsible manner,” Córdova says.

Grantees must report findings of harassment or cases of staff members being put on leave during an investigation. Officials at NSF will then evaluate reports of harassment case by case. “There is a whole basket of sanctions available to us,” Córdova says, including removing someone from a grant, terminating a grant, and temporarily or permanently barring someone from applying for future NSF grants. “We don’t necessarily pull the whole grant. In some cases, we would see if someone else could take over leading the research.”

Yennello applauds the NSF move. “NSF has a lever arm that they sometimes don’t use,” she says. “It looks like they will use it now.” The NSF policy can have a huge impact, “but the devil is in the details. It depends how it is implemented.”

Those details are still being ironed out. Outstanding challenges include precisely defining sexual harassment and determining whether transgressors get second chances.

Universities and other institutions vary in their codes of conduct and paths for reporting problems. In cases such as Ott’s, institutions seemed to turn a blind eye to protect their star researchers and their grant money. That approach may not end with the new NSF policy, says Dara Norman, a researcher at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Arizona. “I worry that, as an unintended consequence, universities might hunker down and report or investigate even less,” she says. For implementation to be effective, it’s important that institutions “not feel they are being punished for doing the right thing.”

Spokespeople for the National Institutes of Health and NASA say those agencies are committed to safe work environments. Both are considering means of enhancing their antiharassment policies.

“We know the endgame,” says Joan Schmelz, vice president elect of the American Astronomical Society. “We want a safe, professional environment for everyone. We want people to work where they can do their best science.” The NSF policy is “a conservative first step,” she says. “It’s great to have a first step. It raises awareness and gets everybody talking about the issue. NSF by itself can’t solve the problem—they don’t have a magic wand.”