Walcott Withdraws From Poetry Professor ElectionBy SARAH LYALL
Published: May 12, 2009 New York Times
LONDON — This month dozens of academics at Oxford University received anonymous packages. Each contained photocopied pages from a book describing decades-old allegations of sexual harassment against Derek Walcott, the Nobel Prize-winning poet.
It is still unclear who sent the material, but on Tuesday it had what was probably its intended effect. Mr. Walcott, a candidate to become the next Oxford professor of poetry in an election on Saturday, withdrew from the race.
“I am disappointed that such low tactics have been used in this election, and I do not want to get into a race for a post where it causes embarrassment to those who have chosen to support me for the role or to myself,” Mr. Walcott, 79, told The Evening Standard.
He added: “While I was happy to be put forward for the post, if it has degenerated into a low and degrading attempt at character assassination, I do not want to be part of it.”
Mr. Walcott’s withdrawal leaves two other poets — Ruth Padel, a Briton, and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, an Indian — still in the race for the professorship. Ms. Padel, 63, is the better known of the two and seems almost certain to win.
Born in St. Lucia, in the West Indies, Mr. Walcott is the author of essays, plays and poems, including the work “Omeros,” and is one of the world’s most celebrated poets. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.
The charges of sexual harassment date back nearly 30 years and were detailed in the book “The Lecherous Professor: Sexual Harassment on Campus,” by Billie Wright Dziech and Linda Weiner — excerpts of which were sent in the anonymous packages. They describe how, in 1982, Mr. Walcott was accused of saying a number of provocative things to a woman who was a student in his poetry workshop at Harvard, including “Would you make love to me if I asked you?”
When she rebuffed him, the student said, he gave her a C grade.
Concluding in 1982 that the complaint had merit, Harvard reprimanded Mr. Walcott and changed the student’s grade from C to “Pass.”
“I am disappointed that such low tactics have been used in this election, and I do not want to get into a race for a post where it causes embarrassment to those who have chosen to support me for the role or to myself,” Mr. Walcott, 79, told The Evening Standard.
He added: “While I was happy to be put forward for the post, if it has degenerated into a low and degrading attempt at character assassination, I do not want to be part of it.”
Mr. Walcott’s withdrawal leaves two other poets — Ruth Padel, a Briton, and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, an Indian — still in the race for the professorship. Ms. Padel, 63, is the better known of the two and seems almost certain to win.
Born in St. Lucia, in the West Indies, Mr. Walcott is the author of essays, plays and poems, including the work “Omeros,” and is one of the world’s most celebrated poets. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992.
The charges of sexual harassment date back nearly 30 years and were detailed in the book “The Lecherous Professor: Sexual Harassment on Campus,” by Billie Wright Dziech and Linda Weiner — excerpts of which were sent in the anonymous packages. They describe how, in 1982, Mr. Walcott was accused of saying a number of provocative things to a woman who was a student in his poetry workshop at Harvard, including “Would you make love to me if I asked you?”
When she rebuffed him, the student said, he gave her a C grade.
Concluding in 1982 that the complaint had merit, Harvard reprimanded Mr. Walcott and changed the student’s grade from C to “Pass.”
The full stroy at the NYT.
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