A female faculty member contacted me about inappropriate behavior by a senior male faculty member.
Concerns ranged from comments about her appearance, inquiries about her availability for more than collegiality, & other acts that made her work-life hostile - if not hell-like.
When her university complaint ended in a stalemate, she found herself on the margins of her group & the senior faculty member appointed to run annual reviews.
The male senior #faculty member was now in a formal position of power over her.
She resigned.
My stomach fell as I listened to her lived experience.
It fell one notch because no one’s work-life should include hostility - male or female.
It fell a second notch - because no means no - and once no was uttered - the senior faculty member should have stepped back.
It fell a third notch - because her boss gave the senior faculty member power over her.
It hit rock bottom when I realized there was little I could do to support her but listen, provide a letter of reference, & then speak out again on the issue of sexual harassment in the academic workplace.
Why speak out?
Every senior person in academe who does not is culpable.
Senior faculty looked the other way for more than one generation as early career faculty & #PhD students were harassed and discriminated against by their peers.
Sometimes, we looked the other way because we didn’t know better.
Sometimes, we looked the other way because we had no recourse.
Sometimes, we looked the other way out of malice.
Sometimes, we looked the other way because we had our own problems.
Sometimes, we looked the other way because we didn’t believe a complaint.
Sometimes, we looked the other way out of guilt, having made bad choices as #youngfaculty.
I know because I have sat in meetings and heard these excuses, seen the looks of guilt, or felt some of these emotions myself.
While #metoo is often characterized as looking back, it really affords an opportunity for senior faculty to reflect & move forward.
Set aside your fear, set aside your filters & listen.
We are all culpable, regardless of our #gender or #race or #rank, when we allow a #colleague, no matter their status (student, staff, or faculty), no matter their gender, no matter their race, to be harassed.
Too often, I hear the university has a policy against that behavior; it’s up to HR to enforce it.
That’s nonsense. HR is the final line of defense against #harassment.
The first line of defense is #leadership.
Senior faculty are responsible for setting a tone. We are responsible for stopping harassment. We are responsible for creating cultures of #inclusion.
We need senior faculty to step up & do the heavy lifting needed to build safe #universities for everyone.
Together, we can build an academic community that’s safe for our daughters & all of our colleagues.
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