Caribbean poet Derek Walcott was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992. Born in Castries, Saint Lucia, the West Indies, in 1930, the poet has enjoyed a long, successful, if occasionally blighted, career in poetry and teaching.
The scuttlebutt is that President-Elect Barack Obama was recently seen with a book of Walcott’s poems. That sighting has prompted the speculation that Walcott will be tapped to perform as the Inaugural Poet during Obama’s inaugural bash.
Nobel Laureate and Sexual Predator?
According to the Harvard Crimson, in 1982, while Walcott was teaching as visiting professor in English at the college, a freshman student accused the future Nobel laureate of sexual harassment. She reported that during a private discussion session about her poetry, Walcott suddenly announced that he did not want to talk about poetry anymore, and then he asked her, “Would you make love with me?”
The Passionate Subject of Poetry
When confronted by the Harvard administration regarding the student’s allegations, Walcott admitted that he propositioned the student and that her description of the event was accurate. But then he defended his actions by claiming that his style of teaching was "deliberately personal and intense"—a style that is required, according to Walcott, to teach a subject as passionate as poetry.
The student also revealed that when she first said no to Walcott, he retorted that he would not give up asking her, and he would continue to hope that she would change her mind. He even concocted a “secret code” that he would use in class. To ask her again if she would have sex with him, he would question her in class, “Oui?” to which she was to respond, “Oui” or “peut-être”—French for yes or maybe. The student refused to play Walcott’s game. Instead, she reported the harassment to her advisor, who told the student she had grounds to file a formal complaint against Walcott.
Further Professorial Misconduct
The student simply wanted assurance that she could finish the course without having to suffer further predatory behavior from her professor. Her advisor told her to write him a note explaining her feelings, and if that did not work, she should file formal charges.
After receiving the student’s note, Walcott did stop the sexual harassment but instituted another form of professorial misconduct by failing to give the student any further instructional guidance. Instead of filing formal charges against Walcott, the student simply stayed in the class. But then after she received a “C” in the course, she was sure her grade had suffered as result of her spurning Walcott’s advances; thus, she finally reported the unwanted sexual harassment to the college administration.
Less than a Slap on the Wrist
Harvard’s Dean of Faculty Henry Rosovsky then wrote a letter about this incident to Walcott’s Boston University, where the poet had taught for a number of years. Harvard’s administrative board changed the student’s grade from “C” to “pass”—the first and only time that has ever been done. And Boston University retained Walcott apparently without repercussion.
The predatory professor has returned to Harvard on two occasions since the incident: in 2003, for a reading of his own poetry at the W.E.B. DuBois Institute, and again in 2005, for a conference at the Institute of Politics.
He Strikes Again
Twelve years after this student’s experience, Walcott allegedly assaulted another student. In 1996, The Chronicle of Higher Education ran an account of a graduate student, Nicole Niemi, who reported that she was threatened by Walcott.
Niemi alleged that Walcott told her that if she did not have sex with him, he would make sure that her play was not produced. This incident happened at Boston University, but officials have never commented on this matter.
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