Fwd: URGENT: BuzzFeed News inquiry re allegations of sexual harassment
[{"sender": "Lawrence Krauss", "recipients": ["nancy dah!", "Lawrence Kraus [i"], "timestamp": "12/11/2017 5:53:12 AM", "subject": "Fwd: URGENT: BuzzFeed News inquiry re allegations of sexual harassment", "body": "First draft:\n\nIt is hard to know how to respond to a list of false and/or distorted allegations, along with misleading statements\non your part. Needless to say, I treat people I interact with with respect, and I work hard to support and mentor\nstudents, colleagues, and members of the general public. I do not sexually harass people. If the purpose of your\nreporting is to somehow argue that that Universities and other institutions are lax in dealing with well known\nindividuals like myself, then in fact the situation is quite the opposite. My high public profile opens me up to\nmore scrutiny at these institutions, not less, and it also opens me up to a host of outside complaints and\nallegations that other faculty do not receive, each of which the University has to respond to. The fact that I have\nremained a professor in all Universities with which I have been associated, in good standing, and also an officer\nor an invited speaker at organizations like CFI, which have strict harassment policies, is a confirmation of the\nfact that they trust my behavior. I was asked to be an honorary director of CFI, and invited to their last 3\nmeetings to speak, specifically because, as they have written me after the fact, the attendees universally\nappreciated my talks, my courtesy, and graciousness in spending time with the attendees. If the purpose of your\nreport is to impugn my integrity or suggest I have a history of harassment, that too is false. As noted in one of\nyour ‘miscellaneous facts’, as a scientist I try and remain skeptical, and rely on empirical evidence, rather than\nallegations and innuendo. J also try and judge the facts in context. The fact that Universities and other\norganizations employ me or have me on their boards, or invite me to meetings is because they value my\ncontributions and my actions.\n\nYour specific allegations are false or distorted. Item 1 refers to a consensual encounter in my hotel room in\n2006 where we mutually decided, in a polite discussion in fact, that taking it any further would not be\nappropriate, and had respectful encounters afterwards. I cannot comment on item 3, which involves an\nanonymous 3rd party claim, because I know nothing about it, and it was not taken seriously enough to result in\nany university action. Item 4 is confusing. Are you saying that because I decided I didn’t want to go out to a\nbar with a group of attendees that I was harassing them? The second part is false. I don’t do that. Re incident\n5: The ‘female companion’ in this case is my wife, who can attest to the fact that the claim is false, which is\nwhat I wrote in response to the blog in question, causing it to be taken down.\n\nIt is worthwhile responding to Item 2 and 6 in more detail,\n\nRe item 2: the student in question was interested in science communication, and on dozens of occasions came\nto me or wrote to me with questions. When she asked about advice for after graduation I DID tell her she was\ndifferent than the other students in her year. The rest of them were interested in going on to graduate school,\nbut she was interested in science communication so I told her that she might want to take a different path. Since\nshe was the only woman in her year, as I recall, I did ask her on one of these occasions if that made it difficult\nfor her in any way. I asked, because as a faculty member I was interested, and also because as someone she had\nasked for career advice from I wanted to know if that made a difference to her. Re asking her for dinner.. I have\ngone back over emails from that period. I have numerous requests from her to go for coffee to talk, which I\nusually had to turn down because I was busy, including several occasions where she asked me to have coffee\nwith her off campus to talk, and I politely declined. I did let her accompany me off campus one time to watch\nme do a BBC interview because she specifically requested it. I did and do have coffee and meals with students"}]