A top sociologist has announced he will resign his post at a prestigious university after former students accused him and another professor of inappropriate sexual behavior, shocking socially conservative Romania where sex abuse cases are usually concealed and tolerated.
Prof. Marius Pieleanu, a household name and regular guest on Romanian television stations, said he was leaving his job at the National School of Political and Administrative Studies (SNSPA) in Bucharest to protect the institute’s reputation, battered by an onslaught of accusations that it covered up sex abuse of students by its top professors.
The allegations became a top national story after former Justice Minister and presidential candidate Ana Birchall claimed Prof. Pieleanu sexually harassed her more than a decade ago. She went public with some of the messages she said she received from him, and challenged Romania to take sex offenses more seriously.
On Friday, she said she’d received hundreds of messages from other women who said they’d been the victims of sex abuse at their workplace or at university.
Sexual abuse is believed to be widespread in Romania, a society where such behavior traditionally has been toLerateD, minimized and covered up.
In 2008, when she was married and an upcoming politician, she said he sent her inappropriate messages such as: “I would like to see you naked. ‘I want to make you a star’, and ‘you are too beautiful for us just to be friends’.
Responding to the furor, Prof. Pieleanu, an associate professor and vice-dean of SNSPA, said he would quit on Friday and would respond to accusations against him from a number of female students as a private individual.
“It was my mistake that I didn’t (respond to the accusations) four days ago because maybe I wouldn’t be in this position where things have escalated,”he said, complaining that he had been subjected “to a media lynching.”
In a rambling and sometimes incoherent message, he evaded answering questions about whether he sexually harassed students including asking them to engage in sexual relations in exchange for exam passes.
“Define what a close relationship means,” he told Rise Romania. “It’s true that I’m not that conventional, it’s no secret, but that doesn’t mean I’m not normative (Eds: deviating from the norm),” using an obscure word to describe himself without explaining what he meant.
“ It depends on how you define proper and improper,” he added. “Now if someone says about me that I used inappropriate language or behavior with some of my colleagues, define the concept… the relationship of closeness.”
Meanwhile, the co-chairman of REPER, Ramona Strugariu, called for a criminal investigation into sex abuse allegations against Prof. Pieleanu’s colleague following a probe of Prof. Alfred Bulai also accused of sexually harassing students.
She said her REPER party has asked for “the urgent amendment” of an ethics code of conduct used in higher education.
Education Minister Ligia Deca said she wanted a swift review of the university ethics code adding her voice to calls to make professors who see themselves unaccountable for sexual misconduct, to answer for their actions.
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