We (Edith Cohen, Vitaly Feldman, Omer Reingold and Ronitt Rubinfeld) would like to direct your attention to a pledge for inclusiveness in the Theory of Computing Research Community:

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/a-pledge-for-inclusiveness-in-toc.html

Our main goal is to draw further attention of our community to the dangers of harassment in TOC and show support towards every member of our community who have been affected. If you feel comfortable with it, we would love it if you sign the pledge and please help us spread the word (on blogs, email lists or any other relevant forum).

 

Some comments:

• The pledge is meant as a personal commitment and we expect that each signer will interpret it in a personal manner.
• The phrasing of the pledge is the result of discussions with many of our TOC colleagues, but we hope that even if it doesn’t perfectly match your views, it comes close enough.
• This initiative doesn’t come instead of any additional action (of the sort discussed here) but is rather meant to encourage such activism.
• There are many reasons that colleagues who are fully supportive of the goals of this pledge may choose not to sign the pledge. Please don’t feel pressured to sign (as this would defeat the spirit of the pledge).
• Through discussions with legal experts who specialize in sexual harassment and related topics as well as with faculty members who handle sexual harassment in academia, we learned that the impact of such a pledge can be substantial (and that the exact phrasing is much less important).