not protected by the university's academic freedom clause. Sexual harassment and assault Nine cases of sexual abuse or harassment were reported officially on campus between 2011 and 2016, resulting in one person being removed from a college. These included an allegation of a 2015 incident in which three unidentified males tried to gang-rape a female student. In 2015 the university promoted a research officer to academic adviser despite his having pleaded guilty to raping a student. The then acting vice-chancellor said there was a failure of internal processes and that the staff member would have been dismissed immediately if senior management had been aware that he had pleaded guilty. However, whistleblowers said there had been a cover-up and that senior management, including the vice-chancellor and the university secretary, had been told of the guilty plea prior to the perpetrator's promotion. The university began a review in 2017 which led to revised policies, mandatory online training for students and staff, first responder training for staff, and counselling for victims. Scientific fraud claims In May 2021, the American publication Science Magazine had made claims in relation to scientific fraud involving 22 papers linked to James Cook University's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. The Australian Research Council, the US National Science Foundation and JCU had been asked to investigate the allegations. The article supported by the international Science Fund for Investigative Reporting, is the culmination of years of research and contested claims over how fish behaviour is changed by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the oceans. Researchers claimed to have evidence of manipulation in publicly available raw data files for two papers, one published in Science Magazine, the other in Nature Climate Change, combined with large and “statistically impossible” effects from reported in many of the other papers. Notable alumni and staff This is a list of alumni and former faculty and staff of James Cook University, including preceding institutions such as Townsville University College and Townsville College of Advanced Education. Alumni Paul Amato, professor at Pennsylvania State University and researcher, among the 1% most cited scientists of 2004 according to Thomson Reuters' Highly Cited Researchers Rachel Carling-Jenkins, Australian politician Katarina Carroll, Commissioner of the Queensland Police Service David Crisafulli, Queensland politician Peter Coaldrake, vice chancellor of the Queensland University of Technology and chair of the board of Universities Australia Rose Evaster-Aderolili, chief of the Human and Social Development Program