UT protesters interrupt class to confront professor who violated sexual misconduct policies

A group of students at the University of Texas on Thursday interrupted a class to confront a professor who, according to university documents, had previously violated sexual misconduct policies.

A video posted on Twitter shortly after noon showed about a half-dozen students — wearing sunglasses and holding banners — walk into the classroom where Sahotra Sarkar, a professor of philosophy and integrative biology, was teaching.

“Sahotra Sarkar, we stand alongside other enraged women who are disgusted by your actions towards students,” one student says in the video.

In 2017, Sarkar was suspended from teaching for a semester after students complained he invited them to swim with him at nude beaches, asked them to pose nude for photographs and held many school-related meetings at bars, according to records the American-Statesman obtained last year.

At the time, Sarkar denied many of these allegations in a memo to the provost.

For weeks, students at UT have been holding sit-ins and rallies protesting Sarkar’s employment at the university and the employment of several other faculty members who documents show were found to have violated the school’s sexual misconduct policies.

It’s unclear how long the interruption lasted or if the student protesters were subject to consequences. A UT spokesman said the school as a policy does not comment on the individual punishment of students, but students involved in disruption could be subject to disciplinary action according to UT’s institutional rules.

In a second video, Sarkar can be seen and heard making a call about students disrupting his class while turned away from the protesters.

At one point, Sarkar attempts to walk out of the classroom and is blocked for a moment by protesters. Still on the phone, he maneuvers around them and walks into the hallway. Protesters follow, chanting, “When sexist pigs exploit their power, we fight back and make them cower.”

The university addressed the event in a statement released Thursday afternoon.

“UTPD received a 911 call of a disruption in a classroom this morning at Waggener Hall. When officers responded, there was no longer a disruption taking place. There is no current criminal investigation,” said UT spokeswoman Shilpa Bakre.

“The university respects students' freedom of speech and right to demonstrate, but speech cannot impede the mission of the university.”

Other videos on social media show flyers with Sarkar’s face being distributed among the students in his class.

According to UT’s Institutional Rules on Student Services and Activities, “no speech, expression, or assembly may be conducted in a way that disrupts or interferes with any teaching, research, administration, function of the University, or other authorized activities on the campus.”

Women are done being cornered by abusive and predatory professors and done w/ empty promises from an uncaring administration. It’s time we move AWAY from the sit-ins. We must organize militantly and take direct action against these predators and kick them off campus! pic.twitter.com/wGdd5qMvDD

— Fire The Abusers (@FireTheAbusers) November 21, 2019