In 1982, a Harvard sophomore accused Walcott of sexual harassment in September 1981. She alleged that after she refused a sexual advance from him, she was given the only C in the class. In 1996 a student at Boston University sued Walcott for sexual harassment and "offensive sexual physical contact". The two reached a settlement.[42][43]
In 2009, Walcott was a leading candidate for the position of Oxford Professor of Poetry. He withdrew his candidacy after reports of the accusations against him of sexual harassment from 1981 and 1996.[44]
When the media learned that pages from an American book on the topic were sent anonymously to a number of Oxford academics, this aroused their interest in the university's decisions.[45][46] Ruth Padel, also a leading candidate, was elected to the post. Within days, The Daily Telegraph reported that she had alerted journalists to the harassment cases.[47][48] Under severe media and academic pressure, Padel resigned.[47][49] Padel was the first woman to be elected to the Oxford post, and some journalists attributed the criticism of her to misogyny[50][51] and a gender war at Oxford. They said that a male poet would not have been so criticized, as she had reported published information, not rumour.[52][53]
Numerous respected poets, including Seamus Heaney and Al Alvarez, published a letter of support for Walcott in The Times Literary Supplement, and criticized the press furore.[54] Other commentators suggested that both poets were casualties of the media interest in an internal university affair because the story "had everything, from sex claims to allegations of character assassination".[55] Simon Armitage and other poets expressed regret at Padel's resignation.[56][57]
