To: The Wellesley College Community
From: President Paula A. Johnson
Re: Working to create an environment free of sexual harassment
Date: March 24, 2023
As a community and as an institution, we continue to grapple with the disturbing news of sexual abuse and misconduct perpetrated by former Wellesley athletics coach John Babington. We continue to feel particular anger, sadness, and pain knowing that one of the victims who came forward was a former Wellesley student from the 1990s. I would like to reiterate my deep regret that she suffered due to Babington’s misconduct.
As we try to reckon with Babington’s actions and what they mean for Wellesley today, I want to explain how Wellesley’s current policies and practices position us to respond to all forms of sexual harassment and abuse, and how we are actively working to create an environment that is free from sexual harassment for all students, staff, and faculty. Let me stress that these policies reflect what we have learned, and continue to learn, about how to uphold our shared values—like respect and dignity—and a culture of support for each other.
Before I describe the changes we have instituted in the intervening years, I want to emphasize that we are committed to doing whatever we can to learn whether John Babington’s sexual misconduct similarly impacted other members of our community. To this end, we have created an additional process for reporting to an external law firm. I encourage anyone with information about sexual misconduct by John Babington while he worked at Wellesley to immediately alert Natashia Tidwell at the Mintz law firm, by email at titleixintake.ntidwell@mintz.
What follows are examples of the ways we have strengthened our policies, reporting practices, and services to ensure that all complaints are listened to and taken seriously:
Since 2015, Wellesley has had a strict prohibition on any dating or relationships between a student and a faculty or staff member, with no distinctions regarding “consensual” or “supervisory” relationships. While these prohibitions thankfully are more common today in higher education, Wellesley was among the first academic institutions to adopt such a strong, clear policy.
In line with our desire to be at the forefront in this area—and the need to update our policies to align with evolving best practices and changes to Title IX—we have made major revisions to our sexual misconduct policies over the years and will continue to follow developments in Title IX and best practices going forward.
One important change, made in 2016, created a separate, independent Title IX office that reports directly to the president, rather than having this function incorporated into other offices. With this change, and following extensive community input, we integrated a new policy and began concerted efforts to raise awareness about the policy and to encourage reporting. This has all instilled greater confidence in the office.
The College now employs rigorous reporting and investigatory protocols; offers resources and individualized support for community members who report abuse or harassment; and fosters a culture of prevention. Consistent and active outreach and communication are integral to our approach. Here are some specific details:
Reporting and investigation
Complaints of all forms of sexual harassment are reviewed carefully in an established intake process, with investigations conducted by outside investigators in a timely manner. The Title IX office offers advisors and confidential resources to help individuals through the process. Online reporting forms for the Title IX coordinator may be submitted anonymously. Since 2020, the College relies solely on external investigators for sexual misconduct matters. Prior to this, some matters were investigated directly by the Title IX office and others by other internal or external investigators.
Resources and support
Regardless of whether they decide to proceed with the formal investigation process, the College offers significant resources and individualized assistance to community members. These include: health services, the Stone Center’s counseling services, and supportive measures such as “no contact” orders and academic and housing accommodations; support in reporting to law enforcement on our campus or on another campus or jurisdiction; support in engaging in Title IX processes on other campuses; referrals to our employee assistance program; and help in connecting with outside support organizations with whom Wellesley partners, such the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) and REACH Beyond Domestic Violence.
Culture, communication, and training
Our culture is key. Wellesley’s faculty and staff are increasingly diverse across all dimensions, which is a critical factor in our ability to foster an empowering, supportive, and inclusive environment. Further, our approach to prevention and safety is focused on understanding behaviors and creating a culture where we make clear the importance of reporting—backed by the assurance that we will take every report seriously.
We consistently share these values through official communications, campus presentations, and programming (our peer health educators, including the Sexual Health Educators, or SHEs, play a valuable role here). Taken together, the message is clear: We will not tolerate sexual harassment or sexual misconduct of any kind on our campus.
Additionally, we engage in extensive training and outreach for members of our community. This includes online sexual harassment training offered to all students and employees; annual training for students participating in Wellesley-sponsored internships; annual in-person training for all student-athletes, coaches, and athletics administrators; and in-person training for other groups of students, employees, and faculty.
We strive to expand in-person and virtual training because the evidence is clear that having personalized training is significantly more effective in preventing sexual harassment than training that is generalized. I know this first-hand through my work as co-chair of the first evidence-based report of sexual harassment of women in academic STEM fields produced by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM), which identified strategies to address and prevent this problem in the academy. Further, Wellesley is a founding member of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education, which includes over 60 institutions that have publicly stated their commitment to working to implement the recommendations from the report.
I hope I’ve provided you with a more complete understanding of the ways Wellesley works hard to respond to—and prevent—all forms of sexual harassment and misconduct, and of our commitment to creating an environment that is free of sexual harassment of any form. We cannot change the past, but we can learn from it. In that spirit, we will constantly strive to prevent sexual harassment and misconduct at Wellesley, now and moving forward.
