I guess it will take a big class action lawsuit with stiff financial and other consequences to shut down illegal harassing behaviors.
It never happened to me when I was in engineering school. Professors were not dumb enough to say anything like that in public.
I don’t know why we’d say Marcy was dumb to act the way he did, apparently openly in public. After all, he got away with it for over ten years. Probably well over ten years. He’s been at Berkeley since 1999 and before that was teaching at SF State, and since he thought his behavior was beyond reproach, very likely he’s been pawing and mauling female students all along.
And his high status protected him-- this is a guy who’s been mentioned for a Nobel, for heavens sake. Women would be afraid to complain, and they’d figure they’d be blown off, which is exactly what happened when Ruth Murray-Clay tried to register complaints in 2005.
And he still has his job.
Just because several posters have mentioned tenure in this discussion (sometimes with the clear implication that tenure is protecting him from being fired), tenure should not and does not protect someone’s job when something like this is at issue—a faculty member can always be fired with cause, no matter their tenure status. All that tenure does is provide very specific due process protections.
Whatever’s going on that’s protecting this guy, it isn’t tenure.
His wife is protecting him as well. Her statement was that he is being tried in the “hysterical” court of public opinion. I believe he denies the most serious of the allegations - the one where he put his hand on a student’s knee and then slid it all the way up.
It is startling to me that a man that supposedly has such a high level of intelligence can be so out of touch with what constitutes appropriate behavior in his professional life. Or perhaps like so many that achieve celebrity status in their field they believe the rules do not apply to them?
I am glad that some of his male colleagues are being vocal. This type of behavior does not serve anyone well. It diminishes a woman professionally, and if you are a man would you want anyone touching your wife or daughter in a demeaning manner? Or touching them at all? Both males and females should get comfortable speaking up about this sort of thing.
This isn’t just a difficult situation for the women involved. There were men working in the same field who felt compelled to say nothing, in order to protect their careers.
Some of the comments here assume that the women involved could have easily complained to the department chair, that they could have gone to another school, worked with another advisor. This kind of approach may work in some fields: move to a different law firm/hedge fund/medical practice. But astronomy is a small community. Exoplanet research is a small community within that small community. And Geoff Marcy is a big, big deal. He and his one-time collaborator were the ones who went on what was a seemingly wild goose chase to find planets around another star over 20 years ago. Combine his success in such a unique, attention-grabbing field with his skill as a public speaker, and voila, you have someone who is feted internationally, who can influence whose research gets funded and whose doesn’t. A kingmaker. Think of the attention and money prestige he brought to the Cal astronomy department. If you really think that one grad student’s complaint, or even several grad student complaints, is going to result in the department chair doing anything to rein him in, I commend you for your faith in people always doing the right thing. The complaints against him throughout the exoplanet community go back over a decade, and are not limited to Cal students.
You have a daughter in tech, a field where sexism and bad behavior is well-known. So do I. I’ve been sure to pass on any articles that I see about how women in these fields should guard against this kind of behavior. You might want to pass this on to her, as well.
I knew lots of girls that said nothing. I knew smart, bright girls that had great grade point averages that had never had to deal with perverted old men. I was too stupid to keep my mouth shut I guess and when they said inappropriate things in class I would push back. I should have been more worried about my grades. It happened to several friends in law school as well.
I went to TTT so any harassment I get I can transfer to another TTT. The dumb enough comment is that in this day and age, the whole university could be sued, I’m surprised that it happened at UC Berkeley, a school known for having a lot of activists.
But thank goodness I don’t study astrology, I hate to put up with jerks like these. I rather work at Starbucks.
Thanks for the link @SlightleyTove, I think I could be guilty of #2, but I will send the link.
I’m having trouble posting from this iPhone.
So it sounds like the university knows if you have it documented, well that is why you should sue the university.
I agree that other factors are at work. When we were in grad school at a so-called “top Ivy,” a classmate of DW’s was propositioned by her adviser. He said that he could make things very easy for her. She complained to the department. The adviser, who was an assistant professor at the time, received tenure subsequently. (He was a rising star.) And the student? She left.
I suppose it enhances the reputation and standing of the university that has these types of “rock stars” on their faculty. So they go to great lengths not to lose them to another university who probably would be happy to bring them aboard.
^^ That. A lot of the self-inflicted problems of the academy, IMO, come from chasing prestige (in this and other ways).
That’s why it’s best to go after the university. A huge university stands more to loose in a law suit so that might change some of these professors. They are not changing for the goodness of their heart, probably afraid of being sue.
53: And, after the recent-ish spate of Title IX "Dear Colleague" letters, such a threat might be taken particularly seriously right now.
It’s “best” to go after the university by suing? Best for who? Manifestly, it’s not best for the student who is harassed but who wants to continue at her school. Whistle-blowing rarely ends up well for the whistle-blower. The same people in power who’ve been protecting the harasser all along are going to marginalize the accuser.
So you just have to go on complaining.
Victims will always be victims.
It can be somebody but not you.So what are you suggest to do? Btw, some whistle blowers have done very well, recently one made millions.
Dr. Google, have you done this, or are you just talking? Have you brought complaints which risked your job or your academic success? It’s easy to talk a good game.
No, like I said I have never have this kind of harassment at school or at work. Maybe I have the character that nobody messes up with me. But I never have to deal with a big enough foe that I would consider suing, but if it were Berkeley, you bet I would, I might retire sooner than my age now. I do know of a friend of my sister who sued for sexual harassment at work and she won because the guy was stupid, he sent her evidence in an email. She net more than a million about 30 years ago and has since retired from her job.
Btw, There were never any big star in my school career. Heck I would enjoy taking down a big star.
My D1 works in higher ed consulting, and she says it is terribly difficult to get rid of a prof unless you have claims that will stand up in court as illegal – otherwise departments generally won’t do anything. Propositions from advisors, sleazy comments in lecture, dinging grades or recommendations of students who don’t respond to come-ons or who complain – not sure the student could sue and win. For crying out loud, Bill Cosby has been using his power to rape women for 25 years, and so far no one has laid a glove on him legally. As mentioned earlier in the thread, schools don’t want bad publicity, they prefer to sweep it under the rug. Women who speak up are taking a huge risk.