Excerpt from "NSF to Require Reporting of Researchers Who Harass," posted on Chronicle of Higher Education, February 8, 2018.
The National Science Foundation, in a move to confront sexual abuse in academe, plans to require colleges and universities to tell it of any NSF-funded researcher who has been disciplined for any kind of harassment.
The policy, announced on Thursday, does not commit the NSF to any specific action once it learns of such cases. But the agency’s director, France A. Córdova, suggested the likelihood of suspensions or terminations of NSF grant awards.
“NSF expects to be notified immediately of that finding, so that we can take decisive actions as appropriate, using all the tools at our disposal,” Córdova said in a briefing with reporters.
The NSF has an annual budget of about $6 billion, spent largely on academic research. It plans to continue its primary reliance on colleges and universities to receive and adjudicate harassment complaints, Córdova said.
The new policy also includes provisions to ensure that anyone involved in NSF-funded research at any location, including remote outposts such a ships at sea and camps in Antarctica, is given opportunities to file complaints directly with the agency. In addition, it includes an expansion of web-based resources to assist such researchers. Córdova made clear the planned rule would require colleges and universities to report only actual findings of harassment, or provisional actions such as suspensions pending further investigation, and not require reporting of initial allegations.
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