philosophicalmisconduct

Karen Kelsky has compiled a lengthy list of sexual harassment and misconduct allegations across academia. Some entries involve philosophers, such as the following:

At University of California:

“Where to start. A professor telling me I looked “sexy”? Another professor ogling me? Yet another professor telling me I was giving him “impure” thoughts? The worst, however, was when a friend of mine was suing the university. She claimed that the university was protecting one of the above professors for sexually harassing and sexually assaulting her. My advisor expressed exasperation. Wanted to know why my friend was pursuing the suit when everyone in the department offered to advise her so she never had to deal with him again. I said, “Well, what about all the female students that come after her? What will happen to them?” My advisor said she hadn’t thought about that. Perhaps the solution was that he could just not advise female students. Then I said, “Ok, so no female student can ever come to our university to study his area of expertise? Is that fair?” She said well, she hadn’t thought of that either, but still, my friend should not be suing. THis made me realize that no one, not even my own advisor, would have my back if anything happened.”

At Linfield College:

“My professor/mentor/thesis advisor called me one afternoon and told me that he was attracted to me. He was married — to a former student. I told him that nothing could happen between us, but over the ensuing months he pursued me. I admired him and was flattered by his attention, and I eventually acquiesced. We had a brief love affair. When I tried to end it, he stalked me, threatened suicide, and used the pretense of an ‘Independent Study’ with my best friend (also a philosophy major) to get her drunk and solicit information from her about me. He eventually ended up sleeping with that friend, as well.”

At Rutgers University (professor “recently moved to a fancy Ivy League post”):

“My advisor loudly claims to be a supporter of women and minorities, and is married to a woman of color. But for me (a woman) he mostly alternated between abusive and indifferent. When he was on a bender, he’d show up, demand attention and talk a mile a minute. Then he’d disappear for weeks or months on end and refuse to look at drafts or submit letters. In private he’d tell me my work was terrible and go on and on about his own work instead, but when other people were watching, he’d appear supportive and helpful. This all took a toll on my mental health, and it’s taken me years to recover from what I now see is abusive and gaslighting behavior.”

Also at Rutgers University:

“Professor tried to force me to give him oral sex”

At University of Waikato, NZ (Update from philosopher at Waikato: “In the case of my department, there has been a lot of turnover since the events described – the harasser died in 2011, and the other people mentioned in the post have left the department.”):

“Upon commencing work I became aware that a married colleague in his 60s was openly dating a 20-something Masters student from the department – apparently the latest in a long line of affairs with graduate and undergraduate students, who were gifted with extra resources such as money for conference trips, opportunities to co-write papers and (it was rumoured) great marks. I was shocked by how accepting everyone seemed of this. I spoke to the HoD, asking – are these rumours true? He said they were, but wrung his hands, saying, “”there’s nothing we can do.”” I was devastated! He said if confronted, the colleague would simply lie, subtly pointing out that the man’s wife was head of HR for the whole University. He said – what I will do is move the student out of his office, which they were sharing(!). He got her her own office, and that was meant to be that. I looked up the University’s code of ethics governing staff-student relationships and you could drive a truck through it. It turned out he’d written it. I felt sick about it all but couldn’t see any action to take, particularly given other colleagues were turning a blind eye. One who worked in feminist philosophy remarked that the students concerned were over the age of consent and she didn’t hold with ‘seeing women as victims’. A few years later a complaint came in from the high schools where we taught Ethics and guess who was super-keen to go out there and deliver it? The complaint was about inappropriate contact after hours (texting) with a 16 year old girl. I was so upset. The University only investigated after certain people pushed hard from inside. I never found out the results, and the colleague remained in place until he died of alcohol-related illness.

What I want to comment on re. all this is that given the colleague was employed for over 30 years, how very many female students must have been caught up in the behaviour – and what happened to their educations? (If any are reading this, please consider that you may have been abused, even if you thought it was consensual.) Also, the wife who was head of HR for the whole University knew all about the behaviour, protected him for years, and even today she is still in place. I consider that appalling. How does she look herself in the mirror?”

At CU Boulder:

“professor started playing footsie with me, at a group dinner, part of an academic event (I had no relationship with him before or after. As it is, he repelled me…)”

At NYU:

“Groping, directed lewd and solicitous comments, inappropriate racial/sexual remarks and jokes”

At the University of Kansas:

“A long-tenured professor, known for being “grabby” and flirty with female graduate students, made a lewd remark about another female graduate student while I was in his office to discuss a presentation.”

At Université du Québec à Montréal:

“Several of my colleagues (graduate students) have been pushy and insistent inviting me to go on dates with them. They wouldn’t take “no” for an answer, especially since, according to them, I wasn’t “seeing anyone” at the time. When I consistently declined, they sent me email rants, calling me names, refusing to speak to me ever again etc.”

At Saint Mary’s University (Nova Scotia):

“My major advisor told me that eventually all female students end up having affairs with their advisors.”

At Northern Illinois University:

“My colleague and roommate frequently made conversations sexual and found excuses to touch me. He admitted to having been sympathetic to red pill attitudes, having abused his girlfriend, and having wanted to physically attack a previous female roommate after a fight over laundry. I lived with him and one other roommate. Two nights after my third roommate moved out, we went to a dinner at some friends. When we returned he expressed interest in me. I turned him down but he proceeded to argue with me for two hours about my reasons for turning him down. I did think it was strange that the time he’d choose to make his interest known was when there was no one else in the department and I was drunk, but I chalked it up to bad decision-making. Two weeks later we were at a bar and he kept buying my shots because I was celebrating an academic success with our colleagues. When we got home he again propositioned me again and argued with me for more than an hour instead of accepting my answer. He also physically blocked me from leaving my seat during this until I begged to go to the bathroom. Once I got away I barricaded myself in my room, since my door didn’t have a lock. Several nights later I awoke to seeing him standing outside of my door looking in at me. I confessed what happened to a female colleague and she told me he had hit on her when she first got to campus. I heard a similar story from a third female colleague.

I felt these incidents were likely to continue and escalate and sought recourse from the faculty to prevent that from happening. I also thought I had an obligation as an employee of the institution to report sexual harassment, but apparently there is a loophole where you can decline to report sexual harassment directed towards yourself. I was unaware of this. A female colleague was supposed to replace me in the house and she was good friends with him, so I didn’t think she would listen if I tried to warn her. I thought the best way to protect her, other female colleagues, and the undergraduates that he supervised as a teaching assistant was to report the situation to the Dean of my department. I was unaware I could have gone directly to Title IX without going to the faculty as an intermediary.

I told a female professor, who guided me to the Dean. They both guided me through a title IX process. As mandated reporters, they reported my complaints, which were enough that the Title IX office decided to launch an investigation. However, even though I limited who I spoke to (a female colleague and a friend unaffiliated with the department), my harasser spoke to many (perhaps all) of the faculty and grad students in order to disseminate his side of the story. After I complained about this, we were both told to stop talking to anyone about the case. As a result, these people only heard his side of the story, whose details were vague, downplayed, or entirely different from mine. I dropped classes because while I could handle my cohort hating me, I couldn’t handle being in a class with a professor who thought of me as an hysteric. I lost all contact with all of my professors except for my thesis advisor. I heard a rumor that all faculty was encouraged not to communicate with me at all unless absolutely necessary, in order to be neutral and protect the department. That rumor would explain my experience. I had applied to PhD programs and some of them were calling faculty connections to inquire about me. I did very well in my acceptance rate, but I do know at least one faculty member thought I was overreacting and putting the faculty in a bad position. Apparently he was angry that I did not take advantage of the loophole that I wasn’t obliged to report harassment if it happened to me– a loophole I was unaware of. I will never know is his opinion impacted my acceptances.

My fervent wish is that I had never gone to the faculty with my problem. I had to move out and pay two rents anyways. I was encouraged to do so by my Dean. Interestingly, he made no such recommendations to my roommate. He described our living in the same apartment as analogous to a divorced couple living together. What I experienced after reporting the incidents was much, much worse than the incident itself.

I was surprised at how badly it effected me. I have had over ten men try to rape me, so what this student did was nothing. I went forward to 1) prevent him from doing something that would really screw me up, 2) protect the women in the department, particularly the student who was supposed to replace me (and I was successful in that), and 3) satisfy my obligations as an employee of the school. I was prepared for my colleagues to turn against me. I wasn’t prepared for the faculty to be completely unsupportive. I wasn’t prepared for them to think the incident wasn’t a big deal. Because of my history, I always think I am too accepting of egregious behavior, and I did have to be convinced by my female colleague that what he had done was problematic.

I think I felt betrayed. The faculty talked so well about the women in philosophy problem. The male faculty members seemed really invested in it. However, their distance, and the rumors I heard about their views of me, made me realize it’s all talk. I understand the incentives at play. If my harasser experienced consequences that became public, that would hurt the reputation of the department, and there have been several cases that have ruined departmental reputations even when the departments took the right steps. I suspect that my department talks about this issue very strongly in order to prevent it from happening, but when it actually does happen, they are going to protect the department and not try to protect the victim or remedy the behavior of the harasser.

The thing is, I can deal with a sexist environment. I’ve worked in incredibly sexist environments, and I’ve done well. A faculty that presents itself as protective of its female students, but which will not back up that messaging should a student need it, is much more dangerous than an overtly sexist department. If I had been in an overtly sexist department, I simply wouldn’t have reported, moved out, and my life would have gone much better.

I experienced a three-month long, intense depressive episode. I couldn’t get out of bed. I literally peed in a cup several times because I couldn’t be bothered to go to the bathroom. I was barely able to get together the money and paperwork together to move on to my PhD program. I am worried this student will get into my PhD program so I have been unable to really commit to this program, because I know if he’s accepted here, I will probably leave. He’s very manipulative and he already ruined my reputation once. He will do it here too and I don’t feel I can explain the situation to my current department because they might think of me as hysterical and prone to overreaction, just as my previous faculty did. I am still depressed. I alternate between too much sleep and insomnia. I self-medicate with alcohol frequently. I am unable to do the work I need to be doing in my PhD program.

I will never report sexual harassment again. Never. My biggest fear in becoming an academic is having a female student come to me with a sexual harassment problem, because I know that female faculty members have lost their jobs trying to stand up for their students. I know the female professor I turned to was pressured into behaving differently than she wanted to. For this reason, I am desperately hoping to be able to teach at a women’s university, or to take my skills outside of academia.

philosophicalmisconduct

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Blog on Hiatus

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