This story was updated Thursday, April 18.
Boston University administrators announced Friday the termination of David Marchant, a former geology professor who was found to have sexually harassed a female graduate student on a research trip to Antarctica in 1999.
BU President Robert Brown sent a letter to university faculty Friday noting the Board of Trustees had upheld his decision to fire Marchant, according to BU spokesperson Colin Riley.
In November 2017, BU’s Office of Equal Opportunity concluded after a 13-month investigation that Marchant had violated the university’s harassment and equal opportunity policies. Marchant was placed on paid administrative leave, and the university denied an appeal he made to keep his job in February of last year.
About a year earlier, several students came forward with accusations against Marchant, the first of whom was former BU graduate student Jane Willenbring.
Willenbring accused Marchant of calling her a slut and a whore, pushing her down a slope several times, throwing rocks at her while she urinated and trying to persuade her to have sex with his brother, who was also on the research trip two decades ago.
The university investigation found Marchant “directed derogatory sex-based slurs and sexual comments at Dr. Willenbring,” according to a letter sent by University Provost Jean Morrison in November 2017, but did not find sufficient evidence of physical or psychological abuse.
Willenbring told The Daily Free Press last March she had attempted to appeal these findings because they were “not true to the actual happenings.”
A written statement from Marchant’s lawyer released April 12 said Marchant “continues to maintain that he has never engaged in any form of sexual harassment” and that he “will pursue his rights in court.”
“The Title IX process at Boston University has been a travesty,” the statement reads, “operated by an administration who has capitulated at every turn to the fear of adverse publicity at the expense of providing due process to an esteemed professor who has worked for nearly 20 years since these false allegations supposedly occurred without a single complaint.”
Several BU students said they were pleased with the university’s decision to terminate Marchant.
Felicity Kim, a junior in the College of Engineering, said she is happy with the results.
“I think there was a lot of evidence against him,” Kim said. “I think it’s welcoming to see that BU is taking a strong stance on this position.”
Iman Asif, a junior in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, said while she thinks it’s weird BU is dealing with an incident that happened in 1999, the university is doing the right thing.
“From all the testimonies his behavior was clearly inappropriate,” Asif said. “It’s nice to see that BU is taking a stand.”
Seamus O’Brien, a freshman in the College of Communication, said he thinks it was good for BU to fire Marchant in terms of student safety.
“If they found one student being harassed, what’s the probability that they’ll find more? Could be very high,” O’Brien said. “They’re taking the actions needed to ensure student safety which I like, so overall, a good idea.”
Jessie Urvater, a COM sophomore, said even though the incident took place in a different time, it is still totally “rational” and “justified” for BU to fire Marchant.
“Harassment of any sort is unacceptable,” Urvater said. “People used to think of it as just super casual, but it’s actually bigger deal than people make it out to be. So yeah, I think firing him is justified.”
