@DrGoogle “You don’t have to send your kid to this school.”
I completely agree. I think that Berkeley should send a note informing every student and applicant how they have handled this situation. Then tell them that if they don’t like it, “You don’t have to send your kid to this school” and attach transfer forms.
If they actually had to do that, I bet they would make a different decision like MIT did.
At a small school, there are no choices regarding who to take for classes in your major. The path to a degree in her major goes through this prof’s classroom. The first class was a required core class – again, no choice of prof.
And really… she should transfer??? Believe me, she does not plan to ask for a recommendation from him. But academia is a small world… a few well placed comments from him to colleagues at other universities could still scuttle her career. Or he could just fail her or subtly ding her grade in the required course.
So the colleagues know too. And this is a school where near 50% students are female. Something is wrong.
On the UCB reddit, there is a professor names Coward but he he is not a coward, he is seeking psychiatrist help because the tenured math professors at Berkeley are giving him hard time, because he is a good professor, they are terrible, they want him fired. I hope he gets a job at UCSD if he gets fired. It’s Berkeley’ loss.
Yes… something is wrong. I give my kid a lot of credit, she discussed this with the dean of students. Most students just kept their heads down. And many of the male students found it entertaining. Honestly, my kid is pretty tough – she will just take whatever comes to get to graduation at this point, barring something criminal. She may go back after the fact to complain if his behavior continues to be a problem. But she won’t risk it before grad school admissions are complete.
You know I would write an anonymous letter to the President of the college, CCing the professor and the department chair complains about this. Talk about body of female professors, what sort of nonsense is that. And male students found it entertaining is even more ridiculous. But I actually have to hear what was actually said and not through second hand.
But potential law suit might deter them.
Not taking a chance before she graduates. I do bet the college president has not heard about her specific complaints – but I wonder if the dean of students used the threat of telling the president to get him in line the semester she had him previously. Who knows – maybe he will toe the line from now on.
What I worry is another generation of young male students who think it’s acceptable to treat female students and coworkers like that. I also worry about how male students who will stereotype about women acceptances to these colleges, like getting a boost from admission because they are females. I even heard on CC( read on Harvey Mudd forum) that females are getting internships easily. It undermines the effort that kids like my kid put in at school, nothing is easy, especially fighting the stereotype.
Internships are decided by companies, and I don’t think it is easier for women to get them… at least my kid has not found it easy. And I don’t think the male students doubt the capabilities of the women in the classroom there once they are working alongside them. But I sure agree that it sets a terrible example for the male students when a prof behaves that way.
It might be helpful if there was one spot (like a website) that collected these and made them searchable where people could anonymously respond. It might shame the professor into stopping their behavior and if it doesn’t it can at least allow prospective students to know who works where they’re considering going.
I suppose she could post on RateMyProfessor 
No chili pepper for him!
That said, my kid loves her college, and has found most profs to be supportive, and approachable yet professional. She wouldn’t pick a different school, but isn’t happy about this specific situation.
And my guess is that this goes on at plenty of schools.
" I also worry about how male students who will stereotype about women acceptances to these colleges, like getting a boost from admission because they are females."
Why do they never mention schools like Brown where 60% of applicants are women, but acceptances are essentially 50%/50%? It is pretty clear that something in the process is causing acceptances to be biased toward boys, but I have never heard any discussion about it.
That has nothing do do with sexual harrassment by tenured profs, IMHO. Profs have little to do with admission policy.
Off point, but without the stats of the applicant pool, you cannot make that assertion.
intparent, the male students in the Harvey Mudd forum on CC said females with low GPA get internships like candies. Not the males at her work place. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any, maybe they are smart to keep that thought to themselves.
My kid has not found any bias at her school, so far, she is only a junior this year. All the hard classes are yet to be coming.
If someone videotaped this bad behavior and posted it online, I bet there would be more severe ramifications.
Right with the new social media, it doesn’t take much to spread this kind of information, good or bad.
I think all colleges should have some vehicle for anonymous reporting of this type of behavior. Multiple complaints against the same professor would seem worthy of investigation. Certainly such a vehicle would act as a deterrent and there would be no downside for the women.
My female student at Mudd had trouble landing an internship last summer. She ended up researching again, which she enjoyed. But they aren’t being handed out “like candy”, believe me. She started looking in October – had some interviews, but nothing panned out. She contacted about 20 companies, and also went to the job/internship fairs on campus.
Decided she didn’t want to lose out on having something to do for the summer, so rather than keep looking for an internship, in March she approached previous summer’s research prof and was able to continue that instead. It worked out great, they had results that they presented at a conference recently and are working on a paper.
I will add that every frosh she knew who wanted summer research after freshman year got it, males & females.
I get so disgusted every time an article comes out like this. If I had a dime for all the sexually harassing comments made, I would be a millionaire. It is wrong to touch an undergrad student, make comments about her body or make demeaning comments when you are the professor (or the boss). Women should be able to choose a class or a lab and get the same fair treatment as anyone else. Talking about a woman’s body in an academic setting is simply trying to negate that she kicked your ass on the test. Most normal. nice men would never act this way and would be insulted if someone treated their sister, wife, daughter like this. I wish the girls in question would make a huge poster board and post in his building stating he is disgusting and paunchy and rude.