While the law against sexual abuse is blocked in the Chamber of Deputies, and universities only investigate complaints, a new scandal emerges. This time, the accused is a professor of psychology from a university in Sibiu.
Students from Sibiu, serious accusations against a teacher. Source: archive
Four months ago, before the scandal in which the sociologist Alfred Bulai was involved, 34 students of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of the “Lucian Blaga” University in Sibiu sent a notification to the management and the Ethics Commission in which they made accusations serious to Professor Eugen Iordănescu.
The teacher was accused of abuse of power and humiliating behavior, according to the Investigation, but since then and until now the representatives of the University have not taken any steps to solve the problem. The reason? Because the complaint was anonymous and the complainants have no tangible evidence, it was not considered. No one batted an eye, and the case was buried.
Students, the target of questions with sexual connotations
“Professor Iordănescu touches the feet of the people sitting next to him in the laboratories, corrects the positions of his colleagues by touching them, during classes he walks among the benches and touches colleagues on the shoulders in a manner that is intended to be friendly, but which creates a lot of discomfort the persons concerned”, say the students in the complaint submitted to the University management.
“During a lab, the teacher made a student stand up on the chair because she said she didn’t understand exactly what assignment they were going to teach. Students climbing on tables or chairs is, in fact, a practice of Iordănescu. He considers it a way to teach: “I make the students stand up on the tables or chairs, I make them walk on the tables for 5 minutes to recover”, it is also shown in the complaint.
“One colleague constantly corrected her position, in every lab, justifying the fact that she does not have the position of a professional psychologist, without there being anything inappropriate in the position of our colleague – she was just sitting on the chair with her hands behind her back and not having her legs crossed. To correct her position he brought her two markers, put his hands on her hands and placed them on her knees, entering her personal space and showing a lack of respect and propriety. He asked the same colleague, as well as a colleague, in the first labs how many times they had sex in that week – specifying that it was not mandatory to answer. The specification in itself has no point at all, it does not negate the impertinence of the question”. the young people also pointed out in the complaint.
Palms over the forehead as a sign of blessing
The young people are outraged by the inappropriate behavior of the teacher who, on another day, would have pulled a student’s shirt. “and when she withdrew in shock, he looked at her very badly.” They said that the teacher used to slap them on the forehead as a sign of blessing. “Another colleague receives slaps on the forehead to which the teacher says ‘that’s how you received the blessing’it is also stated in the complaint made by the young people.
The students stated that they have colleagues who could not come to classes in the last few days, suffered panic attacks, received medical treatment and repeatedly said that they were very afraid to expose themselves, the students also mentioned.
The Ethics Committee requests evidence, proof, names and contact information
The complaint filed remained unresolved by the ethics committee. Danusia Boicean, the chairperson of the Commission, asked the students to complete the complaint with contact information, the teacher’s identification data and evidence, consisting of witnesses and documents. They are also asked to clearly specify the capacity in which they wish to be summoned by the commission, but also whether or not they want the accused teacher to know their name, in the event of a mediation.
Contacted to give him the opportunity to say his version, Professor Eugen Iordănescu stated: “I’m not interested! Address the management of the faculty!”.
Recently, the National Alliance of Student Organizations in Romania (ANOSR) asked the Chamber of Deputies to urgently adopt the law that could combat sexual harassment. “ANOSR, as a representative of all students in Romania, requests the members of the Chamber of Deputies, the project being in its competence for final adoption in Parliament, to prioritize the initiative and adopt it quickly”, the student organization sent. At the same time, the young people also appeal to the Ministry of Education asking that, after the adoption of this law, reports made anonymously can be declared admissible by the ethics commissions. “In order to integrate this proposal, it is necessary, however, to amend art. 7 of Government Ordinance no. 27/2002 on the regulation of the activity of resolving petitions, the completion of this normative act being a mandatory stage in the regulation of the possibility of submitting anonymous reports to ethics commissions”, it is stated in a statement sent by the National Alliance of Student Organizations from Romania (ANOSR).
