A professor at the centre of a row over her views on gender identity is leaving Sussex University.
Kathleen Stock, a professor of philosophy at Sussex University, faced calls to be sacked amid accusations of transphobia.
But earlier this month, Sussex vice-chancellor Adam Tickell said that the university would not tolerate threats to “academic freedoms” after the campaign to remove Professor Stock from her position.
Professor Stock said that she would be leaving Sussex after “an absolutely horrible time” and “a very difficult few years”.
It comes after an anonymous group, reportedly set up by students, started a campaign to have Professor Stock sacked over her views on gender identity.
Posters calling for Professor Stock to be fired were reportedly put up near the Falmer campus and an image emerged on social media of a campaigner holding a banner saying: “Stock Out.”
In an email to all staff, Professor Tickell said: “The university has been consistent and clear that everyone in our community has the right to work and learn, free from bullying and harassment of any kind, which has not been the case for Professor Stock.
“We had hoped that Professor Stock would feel able to return to work and we would have supported her to do so.
“She has decided that recent events have meant that this will not be possible and we respect and understand that decision.”
He added: “When we published our congratulations to Professor Stock for being awarded an OBE in January this year, I mentioned how her work has its supporters and detractors.
“Rigorous academic challenge is welcome. However, we have seen an intolerance of her as a member of our community because of her work.
“This is now, and will always be, in direct opposition to even the most basic principles of academia.
“I would like to make it very clear that it is unlawful to discriminate against someone on the grounds of sex and of philosophical belief.
“Her departure is a loss to us all.”
Earlier this month, Professor Stock accused a union branch of “effectively” ending her career after it called on her employer to take a “strong stance” against transphobia.
In a statement, the Sussex branch of the University and College Union (UCU) said that all trans and non-binary members “now more than ever should receive the unequivocal support” of the university.
Such a shame and so disappointing for the reputation of the University of Sussex that has failed to properly support the freedom of speech that women who have xy chromosomes in every cell of their body fought so hard for. I hope the police find and convict and the University expels all those that threatened this lady and led to the end of this ladies career. Thank you also for standing up for the views that most people agree with.
Also, so sad for transgender people most of whom are peaceful and decent people that they have disgusting students like this giving the whole movement a bad name
Sorry, but a person with XY chromosomes is a male.
So, an anonymous group, reportedly set up by students, decide who should be sacked because of her views on gender identity. What a sordid state of affairs. We seem to be drifting into a world where, thanks to “woke”, we are being told what to think by a bunch of morons who would not have been out of place in the USSR. Sensible debate has been replaced by the shouting of the mob for their latest cause.
Before our very eyes the predictions made by George Orwell are unfolding, where even language is being perverted. These intolerant extremists want to outlaw the word “mother”. “In January, hundreds of academics criticised the decision to make Professor Stock an OBE” – Why have they not all been sacked?
So the thugs win again!
This is a shocking stain on the reputation of the University of Sussex and the UCU.
How could a campaigning feminist be hounded from her job in this way?
Tickell should have acted much more quickly and much more robustly.
And he should now expel the goons who have tormented this woman to the point she is forced to leave.
So thugs and bullies can hound anyone out of a job.
Rent a mob forced the hand of the Uni of Sussex.
Maybe this is why the Uni and Brighton too, have appalling records.
I hope she sues them for constructive dismissal and collects a fortune.
Shameless Uni of Sussex and the rent a mob students.
It is seems that Prof. Stock has been forced out constructively. I look forward to read more about this strand of narrative thread. I thought OBE meant Other Buggers Efforts or Order of the Brown Envelope instead of Overcome By Events….
either way or more, I am ashamed to read of the role played by members of the local trade union UCU.
From when it was set up, Sussex has been known for its anti-establishment attitudes. It has not changed, except it is now anti-truth, anti-fact, anti-reality. And it is the students that are in control, not the authorities. The so-called “professors” who wanted her out probably were students at Sussex – or a similarly anti-truth, anti-fact, anti-reality university. Crime breeds crime, insanity breeds insanity.
For Sussex University to claim: “Over the past several weeks, the University of Sussex has vigorously and unequivocally defended Professor Kathleen Stock’s right to exercise her academic freedom and lawful freedom of speech, free from bullying and harassment of any kind” while not condeming the “hundreds of academics [who] criticised the decision to make Professor Stock an OBE for services to higher education in the New Year Honours” is rank hypocrisy.
Since any disagreement is now a -phobia, these supposedly intelligent professors are ‘TRUTH-phobic, FACT-phobic, REALITY-phobic’. How Orwellian.