Hoo boy. A couple weeks ago a major higher ed magazine/blog posted an article about my PhD granting department. It was glowing. It covered how the department has taken a firmer stance against microaggressions, and implemented gender neutral bathrooms.
It briefly mentions a faculty member who had a Title IX complaint substantiated against him.
What it doesn’t mention is that there have been six Title IX investigations against him. Several brought over the course of years, and actively fought by the department.
Some current and former students have been writing a response. It has, to put it mildly, gone off the rails and is headed for the sea. I tried to help massage it into something broader. Less about the details of harassment, more emphasizing the precarity of grad students, postdocs and contingent faculty. More emphasizing how the strict hierarchy of academia causes isolation, which allows abusers free reign.
The graduate students are hurt, and want to be heard. In all the gory details. They want to rage at the journos for not writing the piece they think they should have (a comment from the author surfaced on Reddit - they wanted to tell the story of how one department dealt with the discrimination that you can’t quite prove, or that is to some extent in the eye of the beholder. I empathize). I don’t think I can sign it. It’s poorly written. It’s unfocused. It almost certainly won’t be published.
And it makes me so mad. They can’t see straight through the pain. It’s the same thing I went through with that dude who was a real shit to me. Harassers cut you, then offer some salve, but not enough. Maybe a hollow apology. Just enough to keep their hand over your mouth. Enough that you think more is coming, and so you don’t scream. But never enough to let you heal; never real justice and real progress. And this is the system’s reward - these students can’t see past the pain to formulate a powerful response. Academia escapes again. Is it by design? I don’t know. But they’re in such a frenzy that they can’t be effective. This whole thing will just be one more degradation. One more door slamming.
I think I’m going to write something myself if their piece doesn’t go through.
I think writing your own letter is a wise idea. You sound like you have a better sense of how to connect to the journal’s purpose and how to talk about the pain in a way that others can connect to.
I almost certainly will, but I think it’s really important for me to make the best effort I can at making the students’ words stick. One of the authors, the person who was most grievously mistreated by this person, is one of my closest friends.
I think she should not be trying to rebut the piece in the same journal. They have the platform; they can say they won’t publish it, and almost certainly will choose not to. I think she’s wounding herself more by adding this last insult on all the injury. But I respect the need to try.
I’ll probably write something longer for another outlet connecting the two experiences. I wasn’t directly harassed by this professor, but watching my friend go through it was a sort of grooming. I didn’t report harassment when it happened to me, being a coward who feared an investigation tearing my life apart. I’m still grappling with that - what are the lessons we learn from watching other women go first? And when have we discharged our duty to each other? I can tell you that in the weeks following having a public semi-meltdown at the guy who was a real shit to me, colors look different. Food tastes better. I feel like I finally did the right thing, and I haven’t ironed all the way out what that means.
I wouldn’t disregard that if they can communicate their anger in any small way that reflects other people’s anger, it can be really powerful. Perhaps the letter being disjointed and full of piss and venom might be more effective than you think, if they publish it. But it really sounds like you don’t want to be a part of that and want to be more strategic.
I agree with that, in principle. Right now the letter is a laundry list of grievances: not enough space was devoted to an abuser, the journalists covered up for the abuser (I really don’t think this is true), a nonbinary student wasn’t interviewed about the gender neutral bathrooms, several other specific people weren’t interviewed, one student has had a hard time finding a job because of the harassment (debatable), the department head wasn’t serious enough about the harassment (very true).
In 500 words, there’s just no way to give enough space to all of those things at a level where someone who isn’t really familiar with the issues can understand. I think what they should really do is convey the vulnerability. They aren’t safe in the office they go into in the morning. Academic institutions (all of them) cover up abuse. They had pegged their hopes to a journalistic expose that ended up not coming through. People will connect strongly to the helplessness, and in a way that doesn’t require explicit criticism of journalists employed by the venue they’re trying to publish in.
It really is fucking amazing. When I publicly discussed the guy who was a real shit to me being a real shit to me, one of his friends immediately cropped up to accuse me of making it all up, and claiming she has evidence that I did. Which is a lie, I have emails in which he admits all of it. She’s a scientist, and a writer about diversity issues in our collective field … and she is paid off one of his grants during the summer.
Just the low level of financial entanglement (a few grand) people will sell the entirety of their integrity for is shocking. She’s a Title IX responsible person, too, this type of thing can cost her her job.
If the 24-year-old successfully completes three years of deferred probation and pays a $400 fine, his criminal record will be wiped clean of the charge, and he won’t have to register as a sex offender
What is this shit? 3 years probation for a white guy in Central Texas? As long as he doesn’t kill someone on live TV, he’ll be fine there. And a $400 fine? Oh, such a deterrent.
Still apparently suppressed, so the word on the street could still very well be mistaken, but seems like a very high ranking clergyman may have been just convicted for the obvious…
The Cardinal’s name is openly listed in Wikipedia under “Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Australia”, even. Modern technology makes official suppression of journalism laughable.
I love how the article is like “So we can’t say anything but TWITTER BE A THING and here is what you might be looking for if you were to GO TO TWITTER to find out who this asshole is.”