Comment Central: The 10 worst smear campaigns

The University of Oxford’s Professor of Poetry resigned last night, only nine days after she was elected to the post after a smear campaign against her main rival.

Ruth Padel, the first woman to be elected to the position, admitted at the weekend that she had e-mailed journalists about sexual harassment claims made against Derek Walcott, the Nobel laureate.

In her resignation statement, Professor Padel, 63, said: “I genuinely believe that I did nothing intentional that led to Derek Walcott’s withdrawal from the election. I wish he had not pulled out.

“I did not engage in a smear campaign against him but, as a result of student concern, I naively — and with hindsight unwisely — passed on to two journalists, whom I believed to be covering the whole election responsibly, information that was already in the public domain.”

She added: “I acted in complete good faith and would have been happy to lose to Derek, but I can see that people might interpret my actions otherwise.

“I wish to do what is best for the university and I understand that opinion there is divided. I therefore resign from the chair of poetry. I hope wounds will now heal and I wish the next professor all the best.”

Walcott withdrew from the race complaining of “a low and degrading attempt at character assassination” after a dossier detailing sexual harassment allegations made by a student at Harvard University in 1982 was posted anonymously to more than 100 Oxford academics.

Although Padel denied having any part in the mailings, she admitted that she had e-mailed journalists about Walcott: “Some supporters add that what he does for students can be found in a book called The Lecherous Professor, reporting one of his two recorded cases of sexual harassment and that Obama is rumoured to have turned him down for his inauguration poem because of the sexual record. But I don’t think that’s fair.”

Oxford had faced calls to postpone the elections for the 300-year-old post after Walcott withdrew but pressed ahead regardless.

Literary figures including Lord Bragg and A. C. Grayling had called on Padel to resign, with Lord Bragg calling her actions “disgraceful”.

Senior staff from the university’s English faculty contacted Padel yesterday to tell her that they thought she should step down, to head off internal dissent that threatened to erupt into an embarrassing episode of academic bloodletting.

There is no precedent for such a sudden defrocking of an elected professor. Had she not resigned, a number of dons were expected to table a motion at Congregation, the internal university “parliament”, which will meet on June 24. A spokeswoman for the university said last night: “We respect the decision that Ruth Padel has taken. This has been a difficult chapter for all those concerned and a period of reflection may now be in order.”

Professor Grayling, a former supporter of Padel, said that he would be making a formal complaint to the university. “The professorship is a very serious thing. This is dirty tricks and character assassination.

“I didn’t think Ruth would win against Walcott. When he withdrew, I thought it was absolutely wrong and there was no way that the Oxford professorship should be run on this business of sexual harassment — it should be run on the merits of the poetry.”

A LITERARY LIFE

After a celebrated career teaching Greek and classics at Oxford, Cambridge and London, Ruth Padel published her first collection of poetry in 1985 before embarking on writing full-time in 1990

She has published seven collections of poetry and written a range of texts on subjects as diverse as tiger conservation and the influence of Greek myth on rock music

Her awards include first prize in the National Poetry Competition, a Cholmeley Award from the Society of Authors and an Arts Council of England Writers’ Award

Between 2004 and 2006, she was chairwoman of the UK Poetry Society and is a Fellow of the Royal Society

She has written and presented several series for BBC radio

Sources: ruthpadel.com , UK Poetry Society, Times archive

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