Michael Eisen is pissed off at Berkeley, his university.
On Friday, Azeen Ghorayshi posted a story about Geoffrey Marcy, a high-profile professor in UC Berkeley’s astronomy department. It reported on a a complaint filed by four women to Berkeley’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination (OPHD) that alleged that Marcy “repeatedly engaged in inappropriate physical behavior with students, including unwanted massages, kisses, and groping.”
Unusually for this type of investigation, the results of which are usually kept secret, Ghorayshi’s reporting revealed that OPHD found Marcy guilty of these charges, leading to his issuing a public apology in which he, in all too typical PR driven apology speak, acknowledges doing things that “unintentionally” was “a source of distress for any of my women colleagues”.
There’s not much to say about his actions except to say that they are despicable, predatory, destructive and all too typical. It defies even the most extreme sense of credulity to believe that he thought what he was doing was appropriate.
Welllll, except that people are so good at thinking what they are doing is appropriate even when no one else in the universe would think the same.
But, unlike so many other cases of alleged harassment that go unreported, or end in a haze of accusations and denials, the system worked in this case. An investigation was carried out, the charges were substantiated, the bravery of the women who came forward was vindicated, and Marcy was removed from the position of authority he had been abusing.
WAIT WHAT? He got a firm talking to and promised never to do it again????? THAT’S IT???
It won’t do, Eisen points out. Not even a little bit.
It is simply incomprehensible that Marcy was not sanctioned in any way and that, were it not for Ghorayshi’s work we wouldn’t even know anything about this. How on Earth can this be true? Does the university not realize they are giving other people in a position of power a license to engage in harassment and abusive behavior? Do they think that the threat of having to say “oops, I won’t do that again” is going to stop anyone? Do they think anyone is going to file complaints about sexual harassment or abuse and go through what everyone described as an awful, awful process, so that their abuser will get a faint slap on the wrist? Do they care at all?
He concludes that they don’t.
Then he talks about a state-mandated online course on sexual harassment he’d just taken and how bad it is, with an example. The example is about…a male professor whose female graduate student just won’t stop asking him out.
What’s his name? Dr Randy Risktaker.
I swear, I’m not making it up. Look for yourself.
Comments
7 responses to “Does the university not realize?”
While I’m face palming can someone insert a really soft desk in front of me ready for the follow up…
… and Marcy was removed from the position of authority he had been abusing.
… Marcy agreed not to attend and also stepped down from the meeting’s scientific organizing committee.
Seems like Marcy’s professorship, not the committee seat, was “the position of authority he had been abusing”.
If he violates the terms reportedly imposed on him, he has approximately zero chance of further successful cover-up now. Has anybody done a follow-up on recidivism in these high-profile cases?
As an alumnus of UC Berkeley, I took some small pleasure in sending them Eisen’s post (mails tomorrow!), in response to their latest (of an unceasing barrage) of requests for donations. With a note attached, of course, explaining why I cannot in good conscience donate while they fail to adhere to their own stated procedures.
@ Pierce R Butler:
The “removed from the position of authority” part was sarcasm, as evidenced by “WAIT WHAT?”
Astronomer Pamela Gay a.k.a. StarStryder gave a talk at TAM 2012 about her experiences; I found it extremely moving. I did not until quite some time later realize how risky it was for her just to speak publicly about her experiences, without even naming names.
Needless to say, Geoff Marcy’s notpology letter made me more than a little ragey. I fisked it on another woman astronomer’s FB page. If anyone is interested, I’ll post it here.
Infuriating. What a bunch of slime bags. My alma mater has failed to distinguish itself. My guess is that the professor in this case is a potential escapee to a richer university somewhere, say, one that has oil revenues. CA public institutions are poor.
Also, may I say that being removed from a committee is a reward. No punishment was suffered by this disgusting man.
I am sickened.
While as a faculty member I can agree with that, it’s not entirely true, since part of our requirements for being successful are tenure. In his case, he’s been there long enough, has tenure, and no doubt doesn’t need those committee appointments to be respected and retained in his job.
The university I attended (no where near as high profile as Berkley, so few are going to notice it, unless it is something totally egregious) had a similar situation many years ago. That instructor is STILL working there, and the main thing that happened is that the entire faculty and staff had to go through sexual harassment training. Now we go through that every year anyway, so I suppose removing him from the committee was the equivalent. It also means some other unlucky, probably lesser light, on the faculty will have to fill in that position.
I don’t understand why the abuse women suffer when reporting abuse doesn’t get more press (no, don’t rush to explain it to me; I’m speaking tongue-in-cheek). Instead, when you hear about faculty/student sexual issues, more often you hear about some poor professor who was falsely accused by a vengeful student. This does happen. It usually comes out in the investigation; everyone I know who has reported on something like that is still working happily, having been vindicated. I suspect this tendency also has the effect of silencing women suffering sexual harassment; they could be afraid no one will believe them. And so often no one does, even when they are telling the truth.
I remember the sexual harassment course that we went through went out of its way to suggest that women can harass men too – Delivery man in khakhi shots being ogled over by a group of women at the water cooler –