Scandal at Shevchenko University: a student reports sexual harassment by the head of the department
14 August 2024 11:30
Another scandal involving sexual harassment has emerged at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, reports "Komersant Ukrainian" reports citing the university’s student parliament.
Marina Kalashnikova, a student at the university’s Institute of Biology and Medicine , reported sexual harassment by the head of the Department of Biochemistry, Oleksiy Savchuk.
“Our student Maryna Kalashnikova reported that she had been sexually harassed by the Head of the Department of Biochemistry Oleksii Savchuk. The Acting Head of the Union of Students wrote an appeal to the commission to consider this issue in order to involve the Student Parliament in solving the problem,”
– the Student Parliament reported.
They added that the commission has now completed its work and the investigation is being conducted by the police and at the university level.
At the same time, the student parliament is dissatisfied with the results of the special commission’s meeting. The acting head of the student parliament of the Institute of Biology and Medicine, Yelyzaveta Voskoboinikova, wrote an appeal to the head of the commission, Dmitry Lukashov, asking him to hold a second meeting. In particular, she asks that the commission include representatives of student self-government bodies, which is provided for by law, but has not been done. The students are also not satisfied with what happened at the meeting.
“In addition, we would like to note that, in our opinion, the official inspection was conducted without observing the principles of publicity and impartiality. In particular, the commission’s conclusion is based on the excuses of Savchuk O. M. The fact that the student had appealed to the police and the student’s testimony were not taken into account and/or taken into account to a much lesser extent. The assessment of the student’s moral state made by the teacher, the teacher’s statement about threats from Kalashnikova’s father against him, and the extortion of money from the teacher by the victim’s family are groundless,” the appeal reads,
– the appeal reads.
Savchuk Oleksii Mykolaiovych is a professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Head of the Department of Biochemistry. In the comments to the post, many students assessed it negatively.
As of the morning of 14 August, there was no information about this situation on the official pages of the Institute of Biology and Medicine or the Shevchenko National University. We were also unable to find the teacher’s social media pages. Editorial 
is ready to publish the position of all parties.
There was a similar scandal at the same institute in 2019, when a lecturer, Petro Romanenko, was fired after a scandal involving allegations of sexual harassment of a student.
