UPDATE May 20, 2024: Tabassum is staying!

Last week, admin met with representatives of GLO and reversed course, fully agreeing to our call for Brown to support Tabassum through the Summer! When Tabassum rejoins us next Fall, admin has also agreed that her former PI Robert Sobol will have no academic or supervisory authority over her.

While Tabassum's Title IX complaints over retaliation continue, she no longer has to worry about funding while she continues to seek treatment and cares for her newborn child.

Tabassum has asked us to pass along her gratitude to every GLO member and community member who took action to support her - but we also owe gratitude to Tabassum. It takes enormous courage to speak out publicly about what she experienced, and Tabassum’s willingness to stand up for herself for over a year empowers other grad workers to know that they can do the same. We’ve shown that grad workers are ready to protect each other and hold our employer accountable.

Everyone at Brown deserves a Title IX office that protects members of our community, not one that excessively delays cases while pressuring complainants to give up. Thank you to everyone who took action to support Tabassum and all survivors of sexual assault.

Original petition follows below:

Tabassum Tamanna, a graduate student-employee in the Pathobiology program at Brown University, was sexually harassed and assaulted by another University employee while working in the Robert W. Sobol laboratory at Brown.

Brown’s Title IX office delayed her case for nine months before ultimately dismissing it, only because the University declined to re-hire her assailant. Now, as Tabassum continues to seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, and is also expecting to give birth in April, admin refuses to provide the support she will need to continue in her program.

Tabassum is not responsible for having been assaulted at work, nor is she responsible for Brown’s Title IX office excessively delaying her case and exacerbating the trauma she experienced from her assault. Sign our petition to demand that Brown support Tabassum through the Spring and Summer terms.

-

Tabassum Tamanna is a graduate student-employee in the Pathobiology program at Brown University. In January, February, and March of 2023, while working as a graduate research assistant in the Robert W. Sobol lab, Tabassum was sexually harassed and assaulted by an Assistant Professor in the lab.

Tabassum has described how Dr. Sobol discouraged her from filing a Title IX complaint, suggesting that her assault may have been a misunderstanding and urging her to resolve it inside the lab. Tabassum also faced bullying and retaliation from other members of the lab.

Tabassum eventually filed a complaint with the Title IX office in March of 2023. Due to the trauma from her assault, it was impossible for her to continue to work as a research assistant in the Sobol lab. Nonetheless, Brown Graduate School administrators pressured Tabassum to either return to work in the lab where she was assaulted, or take a semester of unpaid leave. (Her assailant was meanwhile placed on paid administrative leave.) 

Tabassum is the sole breadwinner for her husband and two children, making unpaid leave impossible; moreover she shouldn’t be punished with lost wages as a result of having been assaulted at work. 

Tabassum has filed a Title IX retaliation complaint against Dr. Sobol for pressuring her not to file a complaint. Faced with an impossible ultimatum by administrators, she reached out to her colleagues in the Graduate Labor Organization. GLO demanded that admin provide Tabassum with paid leave while she sought treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and other complications from her assault. 

After several meetings, administrators relented and Tabassum continued to be supported through the end of the Fall 23 term, while her original Title IX case against her assailant was ongoing.

Last Spring, Brown’s Title IX office communicated to Tabassum that her case would be resolved by the end of the Summer 23 term. When this didn’t happen, the Title IX office told Tabassum that her case would now be resolved by October 9th, 2023. This deadline also came and went without a determination in her case.

On December 11th, 2023, Tabassum was informed by the Title IX office that her case against her assailant was being dismissed. Her assailant had been hired on a contractual basis, and when his contract expired, the University declined to renew it. Tabassum’s case was dismissed solely on the grounds that the respondent to her complaint was no longer an employee of the University.

This dismissal came at the end of a nine month delay. This unreasonably long process has exacerbated Tabassum’s trauma, resulted in no real consequences for her assailant, and effectively served to punish Tabassum for filing her complaint. It represents an abject failure on the part of the University administration to support survivors of sexual assault. 

Tabassum’s ability to heal from her experience was undermined by the stress and re-traumatization she has experienced as her case has been unreasonably delayed. Her ability to remain in her program has also been repeatedly threatened by admin’s unwillingness to support her. Tabassum’s retaliation complaint against Dr. Sobol and the University remain ongoing. Moreover, the University’s current actions threaten Tabassum’s ability to pursue that Title IX Complaint investigation, which is her legal right.

This Spring, as Tabassum continues to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, and is further expecting to give birth in April, her physicians have recommended that she undergo intensive psychological treatment. She has therefore requested that the Graduate School extend her leave. The Graduate School has refused, instead telling Tabassum that she must either find a new lab this term, or use up the term of parental relief that she will need this Summer.

Tabassum and her GLO representatives made it clear to the Graduate School that both of these options are unacceptable, and likely to result in negative academic consequences for Tabassum, including her potential termination from her program. Following Tabassum’s last request for support through the Spring and Summer, Graduate School administrators responded by repeating their ultimatum and threatening to fire Tabassum if she fails to comply.

Tabassum has been left with no choice but to use up her parental relief for this Spring. In the meantime, GLO has filed a grievance under our collective bargaining agreement over admin’s egregious failure to support her. 

Tabassum is not responsible for having been assaulted at work, nor is she responsible for the University’s Title IX office excessively delaying and ultimately dismissing her case. We demand that the Graduate School support Tabassum through both her continued treatment and her pregnancy, and guarantee her ability to continue her program this Fall.

We further demand that Brown University publicly commit to maintain a functional Title IX office and support survivors of sexual assault, and outline the concrete steps by which it will do so.