Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin welcomes UCD apology for ‘inadequate’ response to sexual harassment complaint

Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin has welcomed a formal apology from University College Dublin for its “inadequate” response to her complaint of sexual harassment by a university colleague.

She said it was a “great relief to be able to move on” and that her experiences at the time had been acknowledged.

In 2020, Dr Ní Shúilleabháin revealed how she had been subject to regular harassment by Prof Hans-Benjamin Braun for two years after she first reported it to college authorities.

The assistant professor at UCD’s school of mathematics and statistics revealed how Braun had regularly shown up at her office to ask her out and made persistent phone calls. On one occasion he followed her to a hotel in Cork where she was staying and was removed by gardaí.

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In a letter on Wednesday, UCD acting president Prof Mark Rogers told Dr Ní Shúilleabháin it had been clear she had not been appropriately supported by members of the university community at the time to pursue a formal complaint.

“University policies at the time were inadequate to address the situation, contributing to an inadequate and untimely response to those actions,” he wrote.

He also acknowledged that she had not been facilitated in taking part in a subsequent policy review.

“The experience you went through could not be further from the culture and working environment we strive to create for all members of our community,” he wrote.

“I apologise on behalf of the university for the events that occurred and the impact that they had upon you.”

[ Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin: Two years of harassment at UCD ]

Responding on social media, Dr Ní Shúilleabháin thanked Prof Rogers for the apology.

“It is a great relief to be able to move on from this with the acknowledgment that my experiences were not adequately or appropriately dealt with,” she said.

Prof Braun worked in UCD until 2019 when Dr Ní Shúilleabháin reported him to gardaí. He was issued with a court order barring him from making any contact for five years.

In 2020, then UCD president Prof Andrew Deeks apologised to Dr Ní Shúilleabháin and other colleagues and students who had suffered similar experiences at the university.

Dr Ní Shúilleabháin responded on social media saying she had been “surprised” to read of the apology as she had not been personally contacted. Prof Deeks later spoke to her directly.

In revealing her ordeal, Dr Ní Shúilleabháin had explained how she repeatedly reported incidents of harassment to UCD human resources, giving detailed notes. Eventually, at the college’s suggestion, she reported Braun to gardaí. However, the harassment had lasted two years after her first bringing it to the attention of the university.

She made a formal complaint to UCD in August 2018. “I was expecting great things from this formal complaint because it had been bigged up to me that it was going to be a very arduous process,” she said later. “[But the investigator] just said, ‘Yeah, the complaint is valid and we uphold it.’ And that was that.”