For his harassing-- and apparently the four were just the tip of the iceberg, Marcy was notorious in the field, and "Underground networks of women pass information about Geoff to junior scientists in an attempt to keep them safe” – he got not even a slap on the wrist. The school told him not to do it any more, and that’s it. So a rock star professor is allowed to drive women students out of science by grabbing and groping them, and he is still on the Berkeley faculty. That’s disgusting.
it is a difficult situation for the women involved. One of my Ds had a “rock star” prof who made terribly sexist jokes & comments in lecture. Stuff like comments about the hotness of female students, and about the figures of female profs.
She complained to the dean of students, and he stopped in that class. But he teaches higher level courses in her major. He doesn’t know who complained before, but would likely be able to id her in a smaller class if it happens again and she complains. She is worried it could scuttle her grade, and possibly affect grad school admissions. She has bern warned about him by other (male) profs in her major, too. Yet he is still teaching.
I worked in a very male dominant department, but in the ‘pink ghetto’ section where all of the 4 of the women attorneys were to be found. We got a new boss who was just crude and 20 years behind the time. He’d tell war stories about the women he’d worked with (usually state officials we had to work with). None of the women said anything, but it was the male attorneys who did. They were offended by the 'What a broad!" statements and comments about how ‘stacked’ the woman from NM was, or how ‘hot’ someone else might be. This was a very male run company (100 vice presidents, only 1 woman) and we were used to the vibe, but this guy really seemed to stand out to the male attorneys and they took the initiative to do something about it.
Of course he wasn’t fired, but he was taken off our section and had ‘special projects’ so we didn’t have to deal with him.
What is somewhat different about this case is that even Marcy’s male colleagues were aware of his behavior and thought it to be inappropriate. But he had so much power and status in that particular community that even the men were afraid to say much. So his abuse of power, while far more damaging to the women, extended to men in so far as they were “silenced” for fear of retribution.
A male professor of Astronomy at Harvard allegedly called Marcy and requested that he consider not attending the upcoming Exoplanet Conference in Hawaii. Marcy agreed not to attend.
This issue unfortunately isn’t limited to institutions with tenure, but also private sector organizations when the perpetrator holds a senior position within it.
Exactly. A similar issue with such power dynamics existed at a NYC biglaw firm a friend worked for a decade ago. In said firm, there was a senior equity partner with a nice corner office* who was notorious for not only being verbally abusive, but also lash out violently against junior employees at times. One demonstration of the latter was an incident when he tossed a heavy law book at one such employee because he was delivering bad news while the partner was in a bad mood.
All that happened was the employee was given a six-figured settlement and promises of glowing references for subsequent jobs to keep quiet about it and the senior equity partner got the equivalent of a “don’t do it again” with wagging finger from the firm’s disciplinary committee.
As with that senior Prof, the senior equity partner was practically at the very senior levels of his organization and the power to go along with it.
Also, if the organization perceives his prior work history as one being hugely beneficial to their main mission whether it’s landing large research grants, publishing groundbreaking articles/books, or bringing in/maintaining clientele which brings in large revenue streams, they’re likely to be very reluctant to move against such perpetrators.
I had to personally deliver some computer disks from the biglaw firm I worked for to his office a few times.
I was listening to an interview on the Longform podcast today, and the journalist was describing her first long written piece for a magazine about a Penn prof who threatened an undergrad with derailing her grad school admissions if she didn’t stay in a relationship with him. Apparently this prof had done this at a previous lower ranked college, and they asked him to leave, but gave a glowing recommendation that got him to Penn! She said the article isn’t online, but she “should” put it there. Hope she does, wonder where this guy is now. He was forced out at Penn, but could be teaching elsewhere now.
Lately I have been contemplating how beneficial it is for organizations to cover up sexual harrassment or assault. Churches, boarding schools, colleges, companies, the military – no one wants to be in the news for that, and there is a consistent pattern of sweeping it under the rug and just moving the offender along if there is pressure. It is depressing.
It seems that this guy is an extremely capable scientist whose work is considered to benefit humanity.
I see no point in making someone like that anathema in academia for this level of offense. He has not murdered or–apparently–raped someone. At the same time, women should not have had to deal with his behavior. I DO see a point in reprimanding him and requiring him to participate in formal education regarding his failings. I would have been a really good thing if that had been done a long time ago. IMHO suspension should be part of the package.
It ought to be possible for women to complain and not risk their own academic careers to do so, and not have to wait until after graduation to register a complaint. But the tenured prof has so much power that they can get away with lousy behavior. It may not be rape in the examples given, but none of our daughters should have to put up with any of this crude misogynist harrassment at all.
You know your kid don’t have to take this professor class. You don’t have to send your kid to this school. There is no power given to this professor. If you don’t like the professor, drop out or better yet transfer to another school. I would. But I never got anything close to this and neither my kid. Of course what about comments at the end of the year survey. Can you call Harvey Mudd and his department chair and complain. I would, I got some high school teacher fired without my kid attending the high school. They never came close to harassment.
As for the groping, I’m surprised people put up with it, yeah they worry about grad school. There you go, that’s your problem. Why would you want a letter recommendation from this jerk. I would file for sexual harassment. Nothing worst then become a sex offender or a potential lawsuit.
I was going to post about Walter Lewin at MIT. The allegations against him, apparently substantiated by the accuser in voluminous detail, were disgusting, much worse than what Marcy did. Contacting online students and coaxing them to send him sex tapes? Ugh. Imagine how you might have felt if you were his online student, looking up to him like a rockstar, and he suddenly started emailing you. You’d feel so honored… Until you found out what he was after.
MIT took down his lectures and removed his emeritus professorship. Makes you wonder what he might have done to his on-campus students.
Then the law is on your side. Like I said you don’t have to tolerate it.
From what I read here, this professor is powerful, their kids want the letter of recommendation from him and then complain he is too powerful. He is not, if you don’t want letter of recommendation from him. You have given him the power, otherwise this jerk has no power.
You can also vote with your feet too. If more people don’t like this type of behavior, then more parents don’t send kid to this school. Then maybe Harvey Mudd is not so desirable after all.
Workplace politics can get pretty ugly, particularly when there is a huge power differential, whether formalized (e.g. tenured faculty versus not-yet-tenured faculty versus students) or not (political alliances and conflicts between factions of tenured faculty, etc.).