In 2014, a sexual harassment complaint was filed against the Faculty of Political Sciences professor Slavisa Orlović, but there is no valid decision or sanction in this regard. CINS reveals how it came about.
It was Friday, June 7, when the Council of the Faculty of Political Sciences (FPN) was supposed to vote on the election of Professor Slavisa Orlovic as the new dean. However, this choice was not as so far.
Because earlier, a sexual harassment complaint was filed against Orlovic, a voice against such an election was raised by women’s rights associations, current and former students. Protests were also announced, and as the media reported, six professors resigned as members of the FPN Council.
Dragan Simic, the dean of this faculty, sent a letter to the Council stating that there were no final decisions in the archive against Slavisa Orlovic regarding sexual harassment, nor the ongoing proceedings. Orlovic himself was invited to this later in the statement.
CINS reveals that former dean Ilija Vujacic in 2014 issued a warning before his dismissal to Orlovic for a sexual harassment application filed by one of the female students. However, he later withdrew it, as a result of a compromise, which is confirmed by both Vujacic and Orlovic for CINS.
Also, Vujacic and other professors with whom we spoke to CINS claim that it was decided as a compromise solution to remove Orlović from the position of the dean, but that the lack of communication with the dean was cited as a formal reason. The real reason, they argue, was just a complaint filed against him.
Zoran Stojiljkovic, who was at the head of the Faculty Council at the time, the body that decided on the shift, says that there was really no good communication between the dean and Professor Orlovic, but that was not the only reason.
“I think that’s a reflection of that eternal compromise and at the University that things are somehow kept under control and not going to the ultimate consequences.”
Slavisa Orlovic told CINS that he is currently being pursued by a media chase in which a number of untrue facts are being presented and that his relations with the then dean Ilija Vujacic were not the best.
Compromise
On January 9, 2014, charges were filed against Slavisa Orlovic for sexual harassment. Jelena Djordjevic, a professor at this faculty, told CINS that the vote on this case first came to her.
“A student came and said that his friend had an uncomfortable situation with Professor Orlović and that she felt terribly bad. They were wondering what to do about it,” explains Professor Djordjevic.
She advised them for the girl to write an application to the dean and explain what she was talking about, which she did. The then dean Ilija Vujacic confirms that the application reached him.
“The student described all the details in the application, on which I acted.
On February 5, 2014, he issued a warning before the dismissal of Professor Orlović.
“I gave a warning because of the harassment of the student. I assessed that her statement was correct and I practically needed nothing more. (…) Orlovic in his defense proved inconsistibly that they had only been heard once and that it was tends to be interpreted.
However, according to Vujacic, he endured pressures all the time from other colleagues and mutual friends outside the faculty so that Orlovic should not be punished.
“They convinced me not to do that. In various ways, they tried to convince me not to prosecute him because it is the first time in the history of college to be prosecuted. We all knew about all sorts of cases, and I was the only dean who did it.”
Orlovic denies that there were pressures on his part or the side of his friends and colleagues.
“I did not have such power, nor was the dean at the time subject to pressure.”
In February, at the session of the Council of the Faculty of Orlović, he was removed from the position of dean. Formally, the reason was poor communication with the dean. However, Vujacic says that this was preceded by his agreement with the student who reported Orlovic.
“I asked my colleague if she would be satisfied, would she have any satisfaction if he was removed from the position of the Deakan and she agreed with that. I went to that – to replace him.”
Zoran Stojiljkovic, then president of the FPN Council, the bodies that decided on the dismissal of Orlovic from the position of the Vice Dean and Professor Djordje Pavicevic, who was a vice-dean at the time, confirm that it was a compromise.
“It was a combination of some kind of tare-tastic consent to at least particles be covered by members of the collective and the fact that we did not have some formal legal basis for such a thing,” Stojiljkovic told CINS.
At that point, the Faculty did not have a rulebook that would protect students from sexual harassment. According to Professor Djordje Pavicevic, there was only the possibility of disciplinary or ethical punishment at the time.
Slavisa Orlovic claims that the real reasons are listed in the decision itself.
“The reasons for the dismissal are in the decision. The then president of the Faculty Council, Zoran Stojiljkovic, participated in the adoption and signed a decision of the Council in which there are no allegations he presents today.”
According to Vujacic, the issue of the compromise was that he withdrew the warning before his dismissal issued to Orlovic, an official decision in which the reported case of harassment was discussed.
Namely, Slavisa Orlovic sued the Faculty of Second Basic Court in Belgrade for the issued warning. According to CINS, the allegations from the application submitted by the student are not accurate and the Faculty was dissuased by anonymous applications of various kinds.
“The show was anonymous and I thought that the Faculty had to carry out the procedure and establish the truth, which did not happen, even though I had material evidence. I reached out to the court, in order to establish the truth by the court,” Orlovic told CINS.
After the lawsuit was dismissed, he appealed such a decision by the court.
However, Orlovic later withdrew the appeal, although, he said, he felt that a verdict would fall at the Court of Appeal because the court refused to listen to the student.
Both Vujacic and Orlovic confirm that this was a compromise – that the dean withdraw the issued warning, and that in return Orlovic withdraws the appeal.
“The withdrawal of the appeal is part of the settlement made between the lawyers of the Faculty and my lawyer, and in the interest of the Faculty,” Orlovic said.
He adds that the suggestion for this settlement has come from Faculeta.
“The settlement was made with the suggestion of a long-time lawyer of the Faculty. The most important thing is that the whole process ended in 2014, about which there are decisions of both the then and the current dean at the time.”
After this case, a rulebook on protection against sexual harassment was adopted.
“We didn’t have any rules about sexual harassment, after that we brought it. (…) It was the first rulebook he had at the University in Serbia, because before there was no way to sanction it,” Vujacic told CINS.
