An Apology to the SHA Membership
Dear SHA Members,
On behalf of the SHA board of directors, please accept our apology for the situation that occurred at the Plenary session during our annual conference on the evening of Wednesday, January 6th,. The SHA has taken this inappropriate and hostile behavior very seriously. We have a clear statement of ethics and a conference code of conduct that all participants in SHA-sponsored activities and events must abide by. The SHA has procedures in place to address instances when people do not uphold them. We started that process immediately upon receiving a complaint on Friday evening. While I and about 160 other members were present at the Plenary and witnessed the interruption, it was not until the video of the session was made available by the conference platform that we realized the full extent of what had happened.
Saturday morning, I activated the Conference Code of Conduct Committee who met later that morning. After deliberation, they recommended a series of sanctions for the violations as well as improvements in how we respond to incidents of harassment and offensive speech in the future. The board of director’s executive committee approved all of their recommendations later in the day and implemented them. I immediately shared those decisions with the people who had filed formal complaints, and with the harasser, including follow up phone calls to the person who first initiated the complaint and with the harasser to ensure they understood our decision making process and its ramifications. Per SHA policy, the details of the complaint resolution are confidential and I am unable to share further details. I thank the members of the Conference Code of Conduct Committee for their careful and thoughtful response.
At this time, we have removed the offensive content from the Plenary video because such material is not representative of SHA values and it is offensive. The remainder of the plenary will soon be available for conference attendees to view, as are the other conference presentations and discussions.
I regret that this happened at an SHA-sponsored event, and for the distress, anger, hurt, and other negativity that members have endured. The board will not tolerate this behavior, and we continue to work to make the Society a more inclusive and equitable place. As this was our first on-line conference, we will continue to improve our delivery and control over the live content in an attempt to prevent this type of situation from happening again. Please feel free to reach out to me further. Although I am unable to discuss the details of the complaint resolution, I am happy to share more information about our process or hear your ideas about how we can improve it.
Barbara Heath
President