Ruth Padel Resigns as Oxford Poetry Professor

Posted on May 28, 2009

The first female Oxford professor of poetry, Ruth Padel, has resigned her post in the latest installment of the most drama-laden poetry professor election of all time. A newspaper revealed that it was Ruth who sent an email alerting journalists to the fact that her rival for the post had a scandal-laden past of sexual harassment claims by former students. She let a journalist know about a book written by one of Derek Walcott's alleged victims.

When the news was made public about Walcott's smarmy past, he withdrew from the competition. When some people accused Ruth of smearing Walcott's name, she promptly resigned, which we think is ridiculous. She denies she was behind the campaign, but does admit she sent the email to a journalist alerting him to the situation.

The Guardian reports that Padel gave a press conference at the Guardian Hay festival yesterday. She said, "It was naive and silly of me - a bad error of judgement. I can of course see that people can misconstrue these two isolated emails of mine as part of a larger campaign I had nothing to do with. I do think I was very silly to send those emails but I was trying in a misguided way to address student concerns."

Not one person has said that anything Professor Padel said was untrue. Just that it was unfair somehow to a lecherous old professor. We find it disgusting that the British press is taking so little notice of the very serious charges against Derek Walcott. Sexual abuse and harassment are not a joke, but you'd think it was Walcott who is the victim here. One editorial went so far as to say that it didn't matter that Walcott is a creep, he's a good poet so that's all that matters. Oh, well when you put it that way.... Let's make sure he has full, unfettered access to nubile young coeds at Oxford. What a great idea.