The controversy over President Michael Adams' choice of graduation speaker at UGA's spring 2008 commencement must be understood within the context of the unusual spring semester we've been having. Really, "unusual" doesn't even begin to cover it.

In the past three months, UGA's outstanding student newspaper, The Red and Black, has written six stories detailing evidence of sexual harassment by male UGA employees (five professors and one coach). Three professors and the coach resigned this year. A fourth professor took a position at another university in 2004 before UGA's office of Legal Affairs had completed its investigation; he resigned from that institution this spring after being found to have sexually harassed a graduate student.

Amazingly, it gets worse. The first published case was the most egregious; Professor William Bender had received written warnings about sexual harassment and drunken behavior in professional settings for nearly 20 years. Despite being found in violation of UGA's anti-harassment policy, he was allowed to negotiate his resignation in September 2007 but to continue teaching online and receive his salary through May 2008.

In public statements the day after the Bender case came to light, rather than expressly condemning his behavior and the length of time it took for him to be fired, UGA administrators defended the "process" and the (lack of) action taken in response to earlier complaints. The other cases also revealed an apparent lack of either timely response or sufficiently strong sanctions.

As these stories came to light, UGA faculty members felt that an unambiguous, comprehensive institutional response was needed to combat the culture of harassment on campus. Some positive steps were taken. More than 1,200 members of the UGA community signed a petition unequivocally condemning sexual harassment and calling for women's support services that are standard on other campuses. Administrators were cautiously receptive and voiced their own opposition to harassment — with the first public comments coming a full eight days after the Bender story had sent the campus into an uproar. In contrast, the faculty petition was online within three days of the story appearing and had more than 1,000 signatures before President Adams made his first public statement.

The UGA community has been hungry for leadership on this issue. The selection of a commencement speaker who was embroiled in arguably the most public sexual harassment case in history — for this year's commencement — demonstrates neither leadership nor sensitivity.

This opposition is not about Justice Thomas' politics. If faculty members were opposed to having him speak on campus in any capacity, we would have protested his other recent appearances at UGA. Our objection is about this speaker, this year, at this highly public event. Indeed, any speaker embroiled in controversy about sexual harassment — yes, that includes former President Bill Clinton — would be seen as an ill-advised choice this year.

I am appreciative of what Justice Thomas has done to help our law students and our Honors program. I do not believe the invitation should be rescinded. However, I would like to see our president acknowledge that this decision was controversial, and defend the right of members of the UGA community to object to it.

Janet E. Frick is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Georgia.