Students stage second protest to demand Prof. Dybvig’s dismissal after sexual misconduct allegations

, and | Junior News Editor, Staff Writer, Contributing Writer

(Alan Zhou | Student Life)

About thirty students protested outside Olin Professor Phillip Dybvig’s classroom in Simon Hall and demanded his termination following allegations of sexual misconduct against him in 2022 and 2023. The protest was intended to occur between two successive sections of a course Dybvig teaches, but the class did not meet the day of the protest, Thurs, Feb. 29.

Dybvig has been accused of sexual harassment by seven students since receiving the Economic Sciences Nobel Prize in 2022. 

During the protest, students marched through the halls of Simon while chanting slogans like “Hear us loud, hear us clear, Dybvig isn’t welcome here,” and held signs with messages such as “A perpetrator teaches here.” After rallying, they staged a sit-in outside Dybvig’s classroom, which lasted for over an hour. 

The protest was organized by students affiliated with a range of clubs including MeToo WashU and Asians Demanding Justice. It also received endorsements from six student organizations, including Student Union Senate, Abolish Greek Life, and Gender Expansive Multicultural Society. 

Sophomore Sonal Churiwal, one of the organizers, said that students plan to continue protesting until Dybvig is terminated from the University. 

“We can’t say that we accept the presence of a perpetrator teaching on our campus just because he has a Nobel Prize,” Churiwal said.

Although the protest was scheduled to begin at 3:50 p.m. and continue for the ten minutes in between two sections of Dybvig’s Mathematical Finance course, the classroom was empty. 

In an email to Student Life, Julie Flory, Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications, wrote that the class was not scheduled during the week of the protest.

The course was only scheduled for the first part of the semester and it has concluded,” Flory wrote.

Rob Wild, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, said that Dybvig is not on campus this week. Dybvig did not respond to a request for comment about the scheduling of his class. 

Churiwal said that the protest was planned for the entirety of his class. 

“The class that Dybvig teaches is 1.5 credits, the website reflects that and this week, he normally teaches Tuesday and Thursdays from 4:00 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. in Simon 113,” Churiwal said. “So we’re protesting for the duration of this class outside the classroom.”

On Jan. 16, students held a similar protest in Simon to express their discontent with the University’s handling of the allegations against Dybvig. At both protests, MeToo WashU asked students to sign a petition calling for Dybvig to be fired, which has received almost 1,000 signatures. 

Churiwal said that she hopes the protests continue the conversation about Dybvig’s employment at the University. 

“It’s important for us to keep talking about the situation and for students to know that Dybvig is continuing to teach here, despite the fact that national media has reported that he harassed seven students,” she said. 

In December, Bloomberg News reported that its outlet had spoken with seven former students who allege that he harassed them. 

Churiwal said that she believes the protests will send a powerful message to University administrators, and possibly persuade them that Dybvig’s employment should be terminated. 

Wild said he appreciated the students’ compliance with the University’s Demonstration and Disruptions Policy, which prohibits actions that disrupt academic instruction. 

“The students stopped chanting when we asked them to, when classes started,” he said. 

After participating in the protest outside Dybvig’s classroom on Jan. 16, Churiwal and another student were investigated by the Office of Student Conduct for potential violations of the Demonstration and Disruptions Policy. The students were ultimately cleared of the misconduct claims. 

First-year Amari Herndon-Goodman, who attended the Feb. 29 protest, told Student Life that the disruptive nature of protests is essential for their effectiveness. 

“It is very important that we are disturbing these spaces; that we are disturbing these classes,” she said. “We are being told to be quiet, but if what we have to say is that disruptive, then this should push [the University] to do something about this, not push us away and silence the conversation.” 

The sexual misconduct allegations against Dybvig came primarily from East Asian women. Herndon-Goodman said that the voices of women of color, including those of these women, frequently go unheard or are overlooked. 

“All demographics should be validated, it’s just that some are being valued more heavily than others,” Herndon-Goodman said. 

First-year Lily Douglas, who sat alongside Herndon-Goodman during the sit-in, said that the details of the University’s investigation into Dybvig’s sexual harassment allegations should be made accessible to the student body. 

“I think students should be able to see what exactly [the investigators] did and how exactly they looked into it,” she said.

Churiwal had similar critiques of the University’s communication and response to the issue. 

“We always receive the response that the university is not allowed to disclose any information due to privacy laws,” she said.

Churiwal also said that she has spoken with Jessica Kennedy, the director of the Gender Equity and Title IX Compliance Office, who said that the University has the authority to initiate an investigation if it deems an individual to be a threat to public safety. 

“Given the public coverage that depicts harassment of students, we would fully expect the University to take steps to protect its students by acting as a complainant,” Churiwal said. 

Douglas said she feels as though the University has ignored the problem because it believes students will be silent. 

“I think that they need to listen to the students here, that we are not stopping, we’re going to make it right, and the teacher needs to face consequences.” 

Student Life’s Newsletter Editor Tim Mellman contributed to reporting. 

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