Sexual Boundaries for Professors
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Focus Sexual Boundaries for Professors As a Chronicle of Higher Education individual subscriber, you receive premium, unrestricted access to the entire Chronicle Focus collection. Curated by our newsroom, these booklets compile the most popular and relevant higher-education news to provide you with in-depth looks at topics affecting campuses today. The Chronicle Focus collection explores student alcohol abuse, racial tension on campuses, and other emerging trends that have a significant impact on higher education. ©2017 by The Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, forwarded (even for internal use), hosted online, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For bulk orders or special requests, contact The Chronicle at [email protected] ©2017 THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INC. TABLE OF CONTENTS olleges have long harbored academics who have imposed their sexual attentions on students or junior colleagues. The faculty members’ approaches are often unwelcome, or may make their targets feel uncomfortable, or are clearly instances of sexual assault. When a complaint is made, administrators are left with the difficult Ctask of sorting out what happened and coming up with a resolution that protects everyone’s rights and ensures campus safety. The seven articles in this collection look at how colleges struggle with these sensitive issues. Here’s What Sexual Harassment Looks Like 4 in Higher Education A mix of risk factors has made the problem particularly pervasive in the college workplace. A Professor, a Graduate Student, 7 and 2 Careers Derailed A relationship gone bad illustrates some of the toughest problems facing higher education. Why Colleges Have a Hard Time 15 Handling Professors Who Harass The case of the astronomer Geffrey W. Marcy reflects the complex dynamics at play in such situations. How One College Has Set Out to Fix 18 a Culture of Blatant Sexual Harassment Students, faculty, and administrators work to change the culture at the Berklee College of Music. What Happens When Sex Harassment 20 Disrupts Victims’ Academic Careers People who say they’ve been harassed speak of ripple effects and lasting consequences. Sexual Paranoia Strikes Academe 23 How campus rules make students more vulnerable. Dirty Old Men on the Faculty 30 Will sexual harassment on campus finally get the condemnation it deserves? CoverCover photo photo by Eric illustration Thayer, byThe Bob New McGrath York Times 22 R EINING IN FR ATE R NITIES THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION / SEPTEMBE R 2017 ©2017 THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION INC. Here’s What Sexual Harassment Looks Like in Higher Education By KATHERINE MANGAN s the momentum of the #MeToo Firing a tenured professor often means months campaign brings more allegations of hearings and sometimes lawsuits that an insti- of sexual harassment to the sur- tution would prefer to avoid. Colleagues who sus- face, people are looking around their pect there’s something creepy about sexual banter workplaces and professional net- with students might look the other way if the of- worksA disturbed, but not necessarily shocked at fender could one day serve on a tenure and promo- the stories emerging. tion committee or chair the department. Across many industries, sexual harassment per- “Whenever you have a working relationship in sists because people (usually men) with clout can get which the risks are really high of making a com- away with it, and victims (typically women) either plaint and the rewards are low, that’s a problem,” are disregarded or keep quiet, fearing they will be. says Justine E. Tinkler, an associate professor of But higher education has additional risk factors that sociology at the University of Georgia who has make the problem particularly pervasive. studied sexual harassment and how training pro- Stark power differentials, especially between grams affect behavior. A graduate student tar- professors and students. The intensity of intel- geted by a big-deal professor, or the new hire who lectual exchange. A sense of entitlement by a star is aware of it, may want to speak up, but at what faculty member, with tenure and maybe an en- cost? dowed chair, who is revered in his field. A poten- That calculation may be changing as more peo- tial protégé with what feels like a make-or-break ple come forward with expectations that the col- publication, grant, or job on the line. Boozy con- lege will take action. In recent years, accusers have ferences, secluded labs, remote research sites. taken down Geoffrey W. Marcy, an astronomer at Colleges and universities have long harbored in- the University of California at Berkeley, and Colin fluential academics who’ve seemed confident that McGinn, a prominent philosopher at the Universi- they could target students or junior colleagues and ty of Miami. Now, with the fallout from the Wein- never be held to account. They may have gotten stein scandal and the galvanizing momentum of away with it because of their research money, po- the #MeToo hashtag, American gender politics litical capital, or prestige. finds itself at an uncomfortable crossroads. And nowhere is that sense of unease more palpable than in the campus workplace. It remains to be Students protested in mid- DINA RUDICK/THE BOSTON November against sexual assault and GLOBE VIA GETTY IMAGES harassment at the Berklee College of Music. Berklee’s president acknowledged that 11 faculty members have been fired for sexual misconduct in the past 13 years. seen how those developments will accelerate the levels of sexual assault, and even some domestic complaints. But over the past several weeks, at violence-like behaviors.” least a half-dozen accusations of sexual miscon- That pattern, she says, runs counter to the narra- duct by male faculty members have emerged or tive that the current push against sexual harassment gotten renewed attention. threatens academic freedom. It’s not what profes- sors are saying as much as what they’re doing. AN EYE-OPENING STUDY And they’re doing it a lot. One in 10 female grad- uate students at major research institutions report Any tendency to shrug off incidents in an aca- being sexually harassed by a faculty member, ac- demic setting as relatively tame may not hold up cording to a study by the Association of American to a new study of nearly 300 sexual-harassment Universities. accusations on campuses. It finds that most impli- Some offenders are serial harassers who, if cate more-serious behaviors, with more than half found out, resign and quietly move on to another involving physical contact. campus. They may never be stopped because their “Few of those allegations involved things like victims, who sometimes suffer for years from self- hugging or kissing or anything that could be ar- doubt and shame, don’t speak out. Some get so dis- gued to be sort of accidental or affectionate,” says couraged they leave academe. Nancy Chi Cantalupo, an assistant professor of law More women in academe will feel emboldened at Barry University. She and William C. Kidder, now to share their past experiences, or to protest a associate vice president and chief of staff at Sono- hand on the knee or an unwelcome embrace, Erin ma State University, wrote an article about the E. Buzuvis, a professor of law at Western New En- study that is scheduled for publication next spring gland University and moderator of the Title IX in the Utah Law Review. Blog, expects. “The majority of the cases we looked at indi- “The thing that keeps sexual-harassment vic- cated that the touching was sexual in nature and tims from speaking is the fear of not being be- ranged from sexual groping all the way to criminal lieved or of their complaints being trivialized,” she DECEMBER 2017 / THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION SEXUAL BOUNDARIES FOR PROFESSORS 5 says. “There is a lot of momentum now for believ- the Georgia sociologist. Sessions can also cause ing people’s reports,” she says, rather than assum- offense by reinforcing gender stereotypes “of men ing that someone so prominent or well-regarded being more powerful and aggressive, and women couldn’t possibly have done such a thing. more vulnerable and weak,” Ms. Tinkler says. But even if someone comes forward to report It’s sometimes hard to say when a remark or ac- sexual misconduct, a star professor often escapes tion crosses the line into harassment. But even if serious consequences, as anecdotes from across the behavior just makes someone uncomfortable, higher education have shown. the offender should be told, victim advocates say. That’s what Seo-Young Chu says happened The message doesn’t have to come from the per- when, as a 21-year-old graduate student in English son on the receiving end of the squeeze or slea- at Stanford University, she accused her former zy compliment. Bystander-intervention policies professor, Jay Fliegelman, of raping her and tell- ing her that he controlled her future. Ms. Chu is now an associate professor of English at Queens College of the City University of New York. Mr. Fliegelman, an influential scholar of American One in 10 female literature and cultural studies, was suspended without pay and banned from the department graduate students for two years following the incident, in 2000, but the reasons for his punishment were kept under wraps until recently. He died in 2007. at major research A researcher wrote in Nature magazine last year about being sexually harassed by a former institutions report postdoctoral supervisor and complaining to his university that, despite her objections, he had re- peatedly made lewd comments and tried to kiss being sexually her.