Economics Professor Roland G. Fryer, Jr. has tendered his resignation from the executive committee of American Economic Association days after a Harvard University investigator found him guilty of sexual misconduct.
The association announced Fryer’s resignation last week without giving further details.
“Roland Fryer has resigned from the AEA Executive Committee. He may issue his own statement,” reads the AEA statement.
Last week, a report accessed by The New York Times found Fryer, who won a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2011, of indulging in harassing women at workplace, including bullying and retaliation.
He was found involved in “unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature” with four researchers working at the school. Presently, he is also being investigated by the state of Massachusetts in two other Title IX complaints with allegations of gender and sexual harassment.
Earlier this year, after public outrage over Fryer’s appointment, the association said it would wait for the conclusion of the investigation and further streamline its process of nomination.
“We have decided that, before proceeding further, we should wait for those conclusions, if they are made public and they come within a reasonable amount of time. If not, we shall reexamine our position,” reads the statement.
Fryer, meanwhile, has been denying the allegations and after the fresh investigative findings he said jokes and comments of “sexual nature were occasionally part of such discussions.”
Many people commented on each others’ lives outside of work including their dating and other relationships. Jokes and comments by both female and male lab workers of a sexual nature were occasionally part of such discussions,” he wrote in an emailed statement to The New York Times.
Harvard Economics Professor Fryer Involved in Sexual Harassment [Probe]