Slashdot Mirror
How Academia Still Struggles With Sexual Harassment (buzzfeed.com)
New submitter Dr. Scatterplot writes: Richard Feynman is celebrated as a brilliant scientist and idiosyncratic character. He is also someone who today might be accused of sexual harassment. That is, if his students felt empowered to report him. Whether his department would have done anything back then is a different matter. How far should academic communities go to protect their intellectual capital, at the expense of further harm to their students, past and present? UC Berkeley and exoplanet astronomers are walking that line with prominent professor and exoplanet discoverer Geoff Marcy. "Four women alleged that Marcy repeatedly engaged in inappropriate physical behavior with students, including unwanted massages, kisses, and groping. As a result of the findings, the women were informed, Marcy has been given 'clear expectations concerning his future interactions with students,' which he must follow or risk 'sanctions that could include suspension or dismissal.''
"How far should academic communities go to protect their intellectual capital, at the expense of further harm to their students, past and present?"
As a male university professor, my answer to this is very clear. We should not protect them. For many reasons:
1/ You begin brilliant does not mean you can do whatever you want.
2/ For most of us, we can do our research from a prison cell.
3/ Our students are the main product of academic life. We all love to believe that our research is the most important. But realistically we have the opportunity to touch the mind (the mind I said!) of hundreds of students each year. They will be our legacy, let's make it good one!
Because sexuality and talent in any given academic discipline are independent variables, academia has to deal with various kinds of harassment in exactly the same way as any other place of work. Unfortunately it is unable to, because campuses are increasingly being colonized by the sort of toxic misandrists who could not find a job anywhere else, and so are making academia their private fiefdom. So long as their definition of harassment is "anything that men like," the Feynmans of the future will have to find homes in private research institutes.
Case dismissed. Why does this trash keep getting posted here.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
"when he was a young, boyish looking professor at Cornell, Feynman used to pretend to be a student so he could ask undergraduate women out .. Feynman .. trying to get women in bars to sleep with him .. documented affairs with two married women"
.. that were considered acceptable or amusing in 1950 would quite rightly cause instant outrage in 2014."
Have these fragile flowers ever thought of saying no to sexual advances. What Feynman does/did with his dick - as long as it's between consenting adults - is nobody's business except his.
"It's not surprising to find these anecdotes disturbing and even offensive"
Well then, don't read about them.
"the propensity to lie on the beach and watch girls"
OH, shock horror !
"actions
No they wouldn't, it's just that the political-correctness-feminista dictatorship would try and get you fired if you say any different.
Richard Feynman, sexism and changing perceptions of a scientific icon
In the context of this case, I quite agree.
The professor is in a position of power, or at least respect, in an organization like a university. He shouldn't be hitting on the students. Period.
I know there is a long history of professors banging co-eds, and sometimes that's fully consensual between adults, but even so, professors should not be playing cat and mouse intimacy with their peers let alone their students. This is a workplace matter, not a mating dance. If a woman does want to get busy with a professor, and is playing a coy game with him, who cares? It isn't unmanly for him to refuse to play the game, it's professional for him to refuse to become involved. Surely a professor should not be taking a page from the caveman manual on intergender relationships to justify his pursuit.
As a manager, I don't get to give my female employees massages, and I'd demur even if a particularly attractive one straight up asked me to. Why? Because the workplace is the wrong place for that and I have a substantial effect on her career if we were to get involved or if there was even the suggestion that we were involved. So why are professors supposed to be special? Do they have no professional ethics?
All that should be necessary is that there are witnesses to the behavior. The woman herself shouldn't even need to come forward if third parties can vouch for it.
I admit that there is a potential for issues when anonymous claims are made. There does need to be a way of dealing with that fairly and honestly. You should be allowed to face your accuser if accused of such a crime, but at the same time, there has to be understanding that the victims are in a difficult position.