STA, 3 February 2021 - The senate of the University of Ljubljana has not extended the tenure of associate professor Igor Pribac from the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts after several students made allegations of sexual harassment.
The senate took the decision, which is now final, last week, when it was deciding on Pribac's appeal against the original decision from last year.
The 63-year-old philosopher told the STA today that he was considering taking the matter to court, which however does not affect the implementation of the decision.
The allegations of inappropriate comments and touching come from a survey the faculty carried out among its students and from another two reports from female students.
Pribac, who teaches philosophy of history, political philosophy and practical ethics, has denied all the allegations for the media before, also arguing there has been no report of his alleged sexual harassment to the police, no suspicion of a crime.
"There is only a story about whether it is right for non-verbal communication ... to become decisive in morally disqualifying someone. And a story about anonymous surveys which decide that," he has recently tweeted.
Pribac believes the country will have to engage in a thorough debate on sexual harassment, apparently with his case in the centre of the debate.
Today he said it was foremost in his interest to fully present his case, which is the reason why he would continue to take part in the debate on sexual harassment.
Pribac is known to the general public as a political analyst. He also headed the campaign of former President Danilo Türk in the 2012 election.
There is some unclarity about his employment contract with the faculty, but since he is no longer associate professor, he cannot teach.
The university explained the habilitation procedure is not a procedure of employment termination and sets no deadlines, but said that not having tenure means one cannot teach at university.
Earlier in the day, the parliamentary Education Committee unanimously condemned sexual harassment in the academia and urged universities to adopt the necessary regulations to prevent and sanction it.
The MPs also tasked the Justice Ministry to protect the victims by changing the penal code in 60 days, also by including the "yes means yes" principle.
This was just days after the first Slovenian actress spoke out publicly about being sexually harassed by a well-known actor and her drama teacher, without naming him.
