Harassment victims speak
Harassment victims speak
Friday, September 30, 2011
Last March, 16 students and alumni filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights alleging that Yale had violated Title IX regulations by allowing a hostile sexual environment on campus. Though several of the complainants have spoken publicly about their concerns, there have been few personal accounts of sexual misconduct — and how the University responded to such allegations. Both the News and the University have submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to see the complaint, but both were denied. Now, two alumnae who were victims of sexual harassment at Yale have come forward to share their experiences. The News has reviewed legal documents and correspondences of those involved in each case. One alumna added her testimony to the original Title IX complaint; both of their cases remain unresolved. Here are their stories.
Case 1 — Class of 2010
The student first met her would-be adviser, an assistant professor, when she was a freshman in fall 2006. From the outset, she said, he expressed an interest in her work and invited her to join his lab. In spring 2009, the then-junior joined the professor’s biomedical research lab at The Anlyan Center, a research facility at the medical school.
The student said she began to notice that her professor had an “eccentric” personality, and often joked with researchers in the lab. He often remarked that women had no place in science, but because of his personality, the student said her fellow researchers did not take him seriously.
He also made inappropriate comments about the student’s appearance, both in the presence of other lab members and in private. These fluctuated between overtly sexual compliments and insults.
She first began to take these remarks seriously after spring break in 2009, when the professor began discussing his preference for women dressed in skimpy clothing. After insulting the student by unfavorably comparing her appearance to that of a graduate student, he encouraged her to wear tighter clothing, adding that he would like to see her in a tight T-shirt. She sent him an email asking him to refrain from inappropriate comments and he replied with an apology.
But he continued this behavior and eventually began to joke that the two should have sex. At one point, he suggested that the student should give him a lap dance in order to receive higher wages in the lab.
The student said she decided to stay in the lab despite her professor’s increasing harassment. In fact, he served as her senior thesis adviser, she said, and she was unwilling to abandon her project midway through her research. But the professor did not seem to take her commitment to the project seriously: After she finished her thesis, he told her he would give her an “A” but would not read the paper.
The professor had served as a mentor to her before and even during the harassment, providing advice and gaining her trust. In light of his personality and the larger context of their relationship, the student said she found it difficult to categorize his remarks as a sexual harassment and discrimination.
After graduating in spring 2010, the alumna joined The Anlyan Center as an employee, intending to continue and eventually publish her research. There, she remained under the supervision of her adviser. In the months leading up to her graduation, the professor had frequently remarked that a sexual relationship between he and the female student would not be prohibited once she finished her degree.
While the first months at the center passed uneventfully, the woman’s supervisor soon began to pursue his employee sexually. In one instance, he made two separate physical advances before he accepted the woman’s rebuff.
“When someone hires you and they do this — when this is one of your first employers, it really colors your expectations of employers and your future professional career,” the woman told the News. “As a really impressionable person, it creates all these questions about whether getting a job is about being attractive to your an employer or whether it’s about your actual work. It creates these questions about how much the quality of your work will matter.”
In early October 2010, about four months after she joined the lab as a full employee, the adviser sexually assaulted the woman. He refused to stop for over a minute despite her attempts to make him do so. She quit one month later.
The alumna said the stress of the harassment and assault left her physically ill, and she occasionally broke out in hives due to anxiety. She said the experience threatened her self-worth and academic and professional performance, adding she felt discouraged from pursuing a career in science.
“He would always put my scientific abilities down, telling me that I would not get far in science but [would be able to succeed by] sleeping with a rich guy,” she said.
Shortly after leaving her lab, she met with the chair of her research department and explained her situation. The chair expressed sympathy and offered her another research job on the same payscale, which she accepted. But the alumna was not able to continue her old research, which meant her new job had “almost zero scientific payoff,” she said.
During her last week of employment in the lab in October, the alumna sought advice from a female faculty member in another department whom she trusted. The faculty member was receptive to the woman’s story and contacted Yale College Dean Mary Miller. While the alumna waited for a response, she met with Yale College Dean of Student Affairs Marichal Gentry and Peter Parker, chair of the Yale College Sexual Harassment Grievance Board.
Miller responded to the alumna one week after the female faculty member emailed her. Miller told the alumna she was very interested in meeting with her to discuss her experience. But when Miller learned that Gentry and Parker had already spoken with the alumna, Miller notified the alumna that she believed those two administrators would see the case through. And Gentry and Parker referred the woman to Valarie Stanley, director of Yale’s Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, for further assistance.
The alumna said that the professors and administrators she spoke to until Miller’s referral were helpful and supportive, but her experiences with the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs were less positive.
The alumna recounted her story to Stanley, but spoke only in vague terms about the most serious assault the professor had perpetrated, which had driven her to resign from her job. Stanley did not press the woman for further details. She proposed that the alumna could send a “strong” letter to her former employer outlining his inappropriate actions and behavior. She also said that the alumna could choose to file an informal complaint with the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs — but she declined to mention that the woman could file a formal complaint if she wished.
When the alumna inquired into the formal complaint process in early November 2010, Stanley told her that the process would be more “involved” and “court-like.” She also told her that it would be difficult to punish the professor for his inappropriate behavior once the woman joined his lab full time, since it did not occur during her time as a student. Ultimately, the alumna said she felt Stanley was trying to discourage her from filing a formal complaint. She elected to file an “informal complaint” by allowing Stanley to investigate the contents of their discussion. Stanley told the alumna to expect to hear from her within a week.
The alumna said she believes Stanley conducted an investigation that included interviews with the alumna’s supervisor and female members of the lab. When Stanley and the alumna met in December 2010, one month after their first conversation, Stanley told the woman about her interview with the supervisor. Stanley said he had confirmed much of his employee’s account — but he maintained that the alumna had consented to his sexual advances. Stanley and the alumna made no plans to talk again after this meeting.
The alumna said she believes the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs is not equipped to deal with investigations into sexual assault.
“The [office] deals with everything, from sexual harassment to affirmative action. They need to have someone who specializes in sexual harassment and assault,” she said. “They need to do a better job of giving [students and employees] a sense of what their options are. For example, no one ever mentioned the option of counseling, or directed me to SHARE [the Sexual Harassment and Assault Resources & Education Center, which provides counseling and advocacy to victims of sexual violence or harassment].”
Stanley did not respond to multiple requests for comment this week.
In January 2011, the alumna contacted the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs to inquire about the status of her complaint. She was informed that the University had “taken appropriate action” in an email from Stanley.
“I couldn’t accept what I saw as the University’s negligence,” she said. “So at this point I hired a lawyer. My law firm, working from a perspective of wanting to prove [my supervisor’s misconduct], fleshed out the details of the [second case of sexual assault] from me. When something like that happens it’s completely traumatizing, and I was shut off about it when I first spoke to Yale.”
The alumna’s attorney drafted a demand letter in February 2011 which outlined the professor’s wrongdoing and detailed Yale’s “cursory and inadequate” response to the alumna’s complaint. The letter asks Yale to compensate the woman for backpay, lost income, medical expenses, emotional suffering, attorney’s fees and damages.
A lawyer representing the University called the woman’s lawyer in early March and explained that administrators had not realized the full extent of the second instance of sexual assault. The lawyer added that the University had not realized that this instance in fact constituted sexual assault, punishable by law.
Soon after, the Yale lawyer requested that the woman and her attorney visit New Haven for an interview about the case. They assented and came to the city in late April to meet with Yale’s lawyer and Donna Cable, associate vice president of employee relations. The woman gave her account of the harassment and assault and answered questions from Yale’s lawyer. He asked who she had told about the second incident of sexual assault and whether she had any documented accounts of this evidence. She listed one written account from the time — her diary — and listed two individuals with whom she had discussed the assault, including a therapist she visited to address her trauma and lingering stress.
“At no point did they have me speak to someone specializing in sexual harassment,” she said. “Days later, they asked for [my diaries]. They claimed to want to assemble a tribunal to fire my advisor, and that they needed the [diaries] as evidence.”
Until September, the woman said Yale’s lawyer would not return her attorney’s phone calls. But on Sept. 20, the Yale lawyer reached out to the woman’s attorney to request her counseling records.
The alumna said she is prepared to file a lawsuit against the University in October regardless of their response. While it still remains to be seen whether the University intends to fire the professor, the complainant feels that Yale has tried to delay its response to her complaints.
“I think that their priority, unless this goes to trial, is to sweep this under the rug,” she said. “The University hasn’t expressed concerned for well-being and hasn’t bothered to be in touch. I would like to see Yale care more. I would like to see a tribunal actually assembled to discuss whether [my former supervisor] should be fired or not.”
Case 2 — Class of 2010
An alumna who wishes to remain anonymous due to an ongoing investigation under the University-Wide Committee endured sexual harassment from a Yale professor during her time as an undergraduate. The harassment also continued after the professor contracted her as a research assistant and translator following her graduation.
The female student first became close with her male professor during the 2009-’10 academic year, when he advised her senior essay in political science.
The professor was friendly from the start, often inviting his advisee to discuss her thesis over a bike ride to East Rock. His interest was also more than academic: Once, he offered her a ride home from the airport before she told him which airport she would fly into on her return trip.
The adviser insisted that he and his student share a more personal relationship than one would expect between instructor and student. The woman said she noticed that he often tried to “relax the terms of our relationship” when she attempted to regard him in a professional manner.
“In retrospect, [his words exemplify] what sort of relationship [my adviser] wanted to establish with me; not one predicated on formalities or even niceties, but one that was intimately personal, in which he wished that I knew more ‘about him by now,’” the student wrote in an email to the News on Thursday. “I felt that he was treating me in a discriminatory way on the basis of my being female.”
The relationship between the two grew more uncomfortable for the student. In March 2010, the adviser invited the woman over for brunch and became upset when she did not accept his offer of wine, asking, “Well, then what are you here for?”
While she felt confused and uncomfortable, she attributed the interaction to a misunderstanding and wrote him an apology the next day.
Before graduation, the adviser invited the political science student to conduct research for several of his academic projects, which would be funded by the program he leads for an academic center on campus.
He invited the woman to accompany him on several academic trips as a research assistant and translator. She accepted one of these offers, signing a contract printed on Yale University letterhead. Before the trip, the professor informed the woman in an email that he planned to travel through the East Coast city she was living in that summer, and invited himself to stay with her at her home.
Shortly after Commencement, she joined the professor on his 10-day trip.
She quickly realized that the professor had ulterior motives. When attempting to book a hotel reservation for the two, the professor only expressed interest in rooms that held a single king-size bed. The woman was able to secure a hotel room with two beds by requesting the room from a hotel employee in a language the professor did not speak.
She said his behavior throughout the trip made her extremely uncomfortable: He questioned the woman about a new rule Yale had implemented that prohibited all sexual and romantic relationships between undergraduates and instructors. When she replied that she approved of the rule, he seemed “quizzical” and told her he had been accused of sexual harassment during a previous teaching job at another university. He explained to the woman that his accuser’s account of his supposed harassment was too blunt and aggressive; he said he would use a subtler approach if he were to harass someone. The woman felt that this, and several other incidents on the trip which she asked the News not to describe in detail, constituted sexual harassment.
At the end of the trip, the woman returned to the East Coast city she lived in with her boyfriend — a Yale student — for the summer. She was still completing work for the professor despite the strange events that took place on trip.
The professor arrived in the alumna's city three days after the trip ended as planned.
Although the student had made it clear that she was in a committed relationship, the professor became very upset when he arrived at her home to find her boyfriend living with her. The professor claimed that he was distressed that her boyfriend was still a Yale student.
The student said she tried to handle the situation carefully for fear her job was at risk.
“I felt that I should handle myself in a way that did not endanger my position [of employment]. I was aware that, as I rejected his advances, he became increasingly bitter toward me, and also unnecessarily critical of my life choices,” she said. “I put up with his advances, first, because I felt that as an alum I had no channel for reporting my grievance, and second, because I understood that there was a growing threat of [his] seeking to establish a quid pro quo relationship with me, that entailed my having to remain silent.”
In justifying his decision to stay with his former student — and to ask her to share a hotel room with him during their 10-day trip — the professor cited his desire not to spend funds that could be funneled towards charitable projects. This put the political science major in a position in which her personal discomfort was weighed against her social and humanitarian values.
After the professor left her city, he emailed the woman asking her to call him as soon as possible.
“I called him, and he told me that he was disappointed in me. He falsely accused me of not having told him that I had a live-in boyfriend and said that he could no longer trust me,” she said.
When the alumna returned to New Haven on Aug. 30, 2010, and reported to the Yale center for which she had been conducting research and translations, she was met only with confusion: The center had no record of her employment, even though she was listed as a fellow on the center’s website. She presented her contract as evidence of employment.
She returned to the center the next day to further explain her situation to a female administrator. She told this staff member about the sexual harassment she endured over the summer, but received little support in return. She said the staff member told her she wished the woman had not told her about the harassment because it put her in an awkward position: The administrator said she knew the professor in question had a live-in partner.
The professor became furious after he was contacted by the center regarding the woman’s job status.
He emailed the woman and told her she had “embarrassed” him. Additionally, he said the contract he asked her to sign at the beginning of summer was only intended to help her find housing in New Haven. She was not officially employed by Yale as a result of signing, he said.
On Sept. 19, 2010, he emailed the woman again, telling her she did not deserve payment for the work she had completed over the last three months.
A friend of the woman who was still a Yale student contacted his residential dean to ask for advice on the woman’s behalf. Word of her complaint was passed along to Susan Sawyer, associate general counsel for the University. Sawyer directed the alumna to the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs on Sept. 16.
The alumna’s efforts to file a complaint through that office were met with long waits and little administrative support. In November, the academic center for which she had worked emailed her to say she could pick up a paycheck for her work. When she responded, she received no response. The woman finally met with Valarie Stanley, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs, on Dec. 6.
The woman asked Stanley about the email she had received from the center regarding her pay. The woman said Stanley told her the email had been sent prematurely, and that she could only receive the pay if she agreed to sign a nondisclosure agreement for the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs.
Hoping to put an end to a process that she already considered too twisted to pursue any longer, the alumna consented.
“After having spoken to a few lawyers, I determined that my rights had been violated on several counts,” she said.
Several months passed without further resolution before news broke of a Title IX complaint filed against Yale in late March 2011. The complaint, signed by 16 Yale students and alumni and filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleged that the University’s policies contributed to a hostile sexual environment on campus.
Upon hearing of the complaint, the alumna contacted one of the complainants quoted in an article printed in the News. The complainant encouraged her to file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights, which she did on April 20.
The nondisclosure agreement she signed for Yale’s Office of Equal Opportunity Programs figured heavily into her complaint.
“I had been forbidden to speak about a very important and traumatic event in my life with anyone other than my family and attorneys, when [nondisclosure agreements] are more typically used to forbid disclosure of the terms of confidential settlements, not those that explicitly defile public policy,” she wrote in her complaint to the Office for Civil Rights. “I signed it under undue pressure and in a state of distress. … Yale’s insistence on my signing … to receive even the most minimal compensation for services rendered was, in my opinion, unacceptable and contrary to the most basic principles of fair resolution.”
Since filing, her complaint has been merged into the original formal complaint filed by 16 Yale students and alumni on March 15, and was also referred to the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Women’s, gender and sexuality studies professor and Women’s Center adviser Melanie Boyd became aware of several rough details of the alumna’s case through a friend of the alumna, and encouraged her to come speak to her.
Boyd informed the alumna that she could file a complaint with the Sexual Harassment Grievance Board regarding the incidents that occurred during her time as an undergraduate up to one year after graduation. The timing was lucky: The alumna had only two days left before she crossed that deadline.
She compiled a complaint, but because the grievance board dissolved over the summer to make room for the new University-Wide Committee, her complaint was forwarded to that new body.
She is still waiting to hear from the committee about her complaint.
David Burt contributed reporting.
Comments
theantiyale 8 months ago
when the professor began discussing his preference for women dressed in skimpy clothing This sounds like the allegations against Clarence Thomas.
The adviser insisted that he and his student share a more personal relationship
Insisted? He's gotta be nuts. This isn't the 1950's.
slatest 8 months ago
These stories are awful. Of course the first thought is to be furious and disgusted with these men in positions of authority who use it to repeatedly harass young women under their supervision who indicated multiple times, explicitly and implicitly, that they were not comfortable with what was going on. But right on its heels is disgust at how the University has funneled these complaints into dead-end channels and failed to even refer the women to counseling.
It also struck me that these folks seemed to only had recourse through their status as students. This is why people need unions.
YaleTemp 8 months ago
Wow, what horrifying allegations and what a clumsy, uncoordinated response by Yale. For the first time in my life, I find myself actually glad for the existence of lawyers. I'm also sad that the first woman profiled didn't go to the (non-Yale) police after her attack. Seems like she tried to give Yale a chance to do the right thing and work within the system, but it failed her miserably.
penny_lane 8 months ago
I want to thank these alumnae for sharing such painful stories of harassment and mistreatment by Yale. Hopefully now some of the detractors of the Title IX complaint will understand why those of us who support it feel so strongly.
River_Tam 8 months ago
Three things:
First, why are these professors still teaching?
Second, these women seem dense, naive, or perhaps both. I don't mean to blame them at all for their professor's inappropriate conduct, but women need to know and be informed - pervs are pervs and you don't give them time to apologize and give them second chances. I would never work for a man who'd made even one comment even half as inappropriate as some of the crap these women put up with. Perhaps I'm just old-fashioned or liable to jump early at red flags, or maybe my mother just taught me to not tolerate such behavior, but how in the world do these women not cut off contact and file a complaint sooner?
Third, note that these allegations are against professors and come from women who were in a professional environment. These should not be taken as evidence of a "rape culture" among a drunken undergraduate population. Yale needs to up its game in hiring, apparently.
penny_lane 7 months, 4 weeks ago
Why women put up with harassment is a question for the ages. There are people who put up with intimate-partner violence, rape, molestation, and it's hard to say why they don't do anything about it.
As someone who is trying to make a career in research, though, my compassion goes out to these women. Having a reliable mentor who can give you seasoned advice and quality individualized training is a godsend, and it's a terrible shame that their mentors abused that trust so horribly.
alsoanon 7 months, 4 weeks ago
I think "why are these professors still teaching?" is kind of the point of the Title IX complaint.
Also, how shocking to see unashamed victim-blaming from you. Even beyond the multiple and complex reasons that women often stay with abusive men or are afraid to call out sexual harassment, each of these women was in a situation where her career or educational prospects depended on help she was receiving from the professor in question. People don't always have a simple choice in front of them, but they do have the right not to be abused regardless of ANY choice they make. Not cutting off contact does not equal some kind of implicit permission for the behavior to continue.
Lastly, these are two stories out of 16 Title IX complaints and however many unreported incidents. It's quite a leap to assume from that sample size that all sexual abuse incidents at Yale exclusively involve professors.
River_Tam 7 months, 4 weeks ago
And I am saying they made the wrong choice by staying the course and choosing what they perceived to be their career and educational prospects over reporting a man who had sexually harassed them. Yes, that's right - they made the wrong choice, and I'm sure retrospectively they'd agree with me.
As to the charge of "victim-blaming", I think it's obvious that I'm not doing anything like that. I am not blaming these victims for these professors harassing them, but I am lamenting that they didn't nip it in the bud and report these professors before the problem became so acute, just as I might not blame someone for getting cancer, but I do lament that they didn't start treatment sooner.
Lastly, the focus of the Title IX complainants in the numerous pieces they've written has focused on some mythical "rape culture" that exists among the undergraduate population (see: DKE chants). This sort of pedestrian and sadly run-of-the-mill sexual harassment needs to be stomped out, but it's hardly indicative of a "rape culture" of any sort.
alsoanon 7 months, 4 weeks ago
I think recentalum said below everything I could have thought of. But I'll reiterate his or her most important point: victim-blaming happens when you blame the victim for not doing something to prevent their harassment/abuse from happening. In saying "I am lamenting that they didn't nip it in the bud and report these professors before the problem became so acute," that is exactly what you are doing. Here is the difference between that and your cancer example: cancer is not a thinking being with the ability to recognize that what they are doing is wrong and harmful and stop it on their own. A professor is. The blame -- and thus the onus for corrective action -- lies entirely with the professors in this situation.
River_Tam 7 months, 4 weeks ago
When you are locked in a room with a murderer, you can either find the key and walk out of the room, or lament the fact that they are going to kill you. One of these things is helpful. The other is not.
yalieeleven 7 months, 3 weeks ago
In line with the morbid metaphors - in a recent Dexter episode (a guilty but great pleasure), a serial killer coerces a woman to jump to her death by threatening to bludgeon her entire family to death in front of her. What do you make of that?
uncommons 7 months, 4 weeks ago
River, I usually agree with what you have to say, but this post is actually pretty troubling. Out of all the impressions you could have from this article, how can you be calling these women "naive" or "dense"? Very poorly done.
For the record, I don't think there is a "rape culture" on this campus. But my God, is there a problem with how the University is handling it. Thank you YDN for naming the Yale administrators who are not doing their job. Keep this up.
River_Tam 7 months, 4 weeks ago
I had many impressions, several of which I shared in my post and many more of which went unsaid because they were obvious. For instance, it is obvious that these men are vile human beings, perhaps emotionally unstable, and definitely should not be employed by Yale in any capacity. I did not feel the need to carry on about something that everyone would see prima facie.
What I did feel the need to do was call attention to the fact that while students cannot prevent the existence of vile, disgusting human beings who try to take advantage of them and abuse their positions of power, they DO have the power to stop it sooner. Yale students (both male and female - I've heard a few stories of gay male students being sexually harassed by professors) need to stomp out this thing earlier, when it is still manageable, rather than wait for the actual assault or mental breakdown to occur.
Sorry, but it is naive or dense to not report a male superior who is suggesting you give him a lap dance, trying to stay at your home with you, attempting to book a hotel room for you to share with him, or telling you to wear tighter clothes. It is downright stupid, in fact.
As I've said before - I'm not "blaming" the victim for the harassment. Never. But yes, it's stupid to not report sexual harassment, just as it's stupid not to report a rape, a murder, a burglary, or any other crime.
recentalum 7 months, 4 weeks ago
It's entirely unfair to characterize either of the women in the article as stupid. That is victim-blaming, pure and simple: you are putting blame for not having resolved these actions on them. So your adviser/boss, who controls your immediate professional future, says some somewhat creepy things to you. Do you think anyone would take you seriously if you reported it at that stage? Certainly not Yale's administration, who doesn't even take things seriously after harassment or assault has occurred. Maybe there is a sympathetic superior, maybe there isn't. Do you think that if he got word of your complaint and fired you, Yale would do everything in its power to compensate you? Sure, you can wait for the EEOC to yell at Yale...in 5 years when they listen to your complaint.
What's more, the whole point of the article is that Yale systematically does not take sexual harassment and assault by professors seriously. How does that have anything to do with when victims report crimes? I'm extremely doubtful after reading this article that Yale would have taken the complaints more seriously if they were reported sooner. Think about if you had been in such a situation, and how you would react and feel, how you might doubt yourself, feel isolated, etc. There's an extreme power imbalance between student/employee and professor in these situations that Yale does nothing to remedy this, and people like Mary Miller think cases will be "seen through" just because the administration knows about them
River_Tam 7 months, 4 weeks ago
Erm, I am not blaming the victim for the harassment, but I suppose it is impossible for the administrators (or anyone) to know about the sexual harassment until someone informs them.
They are more than a little creepy.
recentalum 7 months, 4 weeks ago
But they did report it, and the administrators acted slowly and did little. But if they reported these actions when there was less evidence, there would have been a stronger reaction?
I think what you're missing here is the general bias against acting against professors in these circumstances. Professors who do these things generally aren't responsive to "please stop doing that" comments from their superiors, and such superiors are often reluctant to say such things. So there is no particular reason to suppose that raising a complaint earlier would have led to a better outcome. You're also missing the fact that yes, Yale frequently does nothing when presented with clear evidence of sexual harassment, regardless of when it is reported.
River_Tam 7 months, 4 weeks ago
I would also suggest that you stop working with people who are sexually harassing you. This would certainly stop the sexual harassment, and make it even more obvious it if continues (because then it becomes outright stalking).
I did not miss this point (it was the first I raised in my original comment).
CrazyBus 7 months, 3 weeks ago
They also did not report it until the situation got completely out of control. I think what River is trying to say is that the women should not simply accept the harassment out of fear for losing the job. You can always get a new job; you can't reclaim your self-respect nearly as easily.
uncommons 7 months, 4 weeks ago
River, you're not actually wrong. In a perfectly rational, emotionally removed setting, it would be obvious that the student needed to nip this abuse in the bud.
However, I think you're oversimplifying this issue. These women likely had aspirations, which they thought could be ruined if they didn't put up with the professor. It's likely that at each incident, they convinced themselves that they could put up with just a little more harassment in order to achieve their longterm goal as a scientist, researcher, etc. Choosing between a little more difficulty and your aspirations, especially for motivated people like Yalies, can be incredibly, incredibly difficult.
I hate when people start shouting "victim blaming!" so I won't bother you with that, but you need to be very careful. It's a fine line between rational criticism and victim blaming, and you're standing right on it.
CrazyBus 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Choosing aspirations over comfort/self-respect is a choice. I'm not saying that it's right for the women to suffer to succeed; that shouldn't be a choice that people have to make. But that choice was there, and the women did make a choice, between having to go down a different aspirational path (and enduring those difficulties) or staying the course (and enduring present difficulties, like the harassment.)
anon82 7 months, 4 weeks ago
I think it is because these individuals are so devoid of any semblance of self-esteem that they take advantage of men's sexual interest in them to fill a need for something that they are missing, love, attention, or otherwise. They probably brag to their friends over brunch about how their professors want to do them. And then when something actually happens they act surprised and think its unfair.
alsoanon 7 months, 4 weeks ago
dear god I hope you're trolling.
penny_lane 7 months, 3 weeks ago
The trolls! Just to respond is to feed them!
recentalum 7 months, 3 weeks ago
You have no business posting here if you're just going to spew malicious words. I can't figure out whether you're ignorant or intentionally distorting facts, but this is about situations in which, given Yale's attitude to the problem, there really is no good outcome. Read the article again and then consider that these are two real people whose lives have been seriously disrupted by Yale's negligence.
penny_lane 7 months, 3 weeks ago
anon82 is trolling, i.e., posting inflammatory comments just to get a reaction. Best not to respond.
River_Tam 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Go away.
concerned 7 months, 4 weeks ago
From Linda Lorimer's original "Sexual Harassment Grievance Procedure" circa Alexander v Yale to Mary Miller's reaction to the Title IX Complaint "That's not the Yale I know" the message delivered to students is that Yale does not tolerate sexual harassment. This has instead provided a functional screen to nurture abuse and a set up for the continual sexual exploitation of academic women. (The stories are the same, only the decades have changed.)
So now try calling the cops after an assault and it will become "consensual" aka Dominique Strauss-Kahn. At least the YDN names administrative players and potential players employed by the University in furthering the mission.
observer 7 months, 4 weeks ago
How does all this fit with Yale's approach to the reporting of crime stats?
recentalum 7 months, 4 weeks ago
It's entirely unfair to characterize either of the women in the article as stupid. That is victim-blaming, pure and simple: you are putting blame for not having resolved these actions on them. So your adviser/boss, who controls your immediate professional future, says some somewhat creepy things to you. Do you think anyone would take you seriously if you reported it at that stage? Certainly not Yale's administration, who doesn't even take things seriously after harassment or assault has occurred. Maybe there is a sympathetic superior, maybe there isn't. Do you think that if he got word of your complaint and fired you, Yale would do everything in its power to compensate you? Sure, you can wait for the EEOC to yell at Yale...in 5 years when they listen to the complaint.
What's more, the whole point of the article is that Yale systematically does not take sexual harassment and assault by professors seriously. How does that have anything to do with when victims report crimes? I'm extremely doubtful after reading this article that Yale would have taken the complaints more seriously if they were reported sooner. Think about if you had been in such a situation, and how you would react and feel, how you might doubt yourself, feel isolated, etc. There's an extreme power imbalance between student/employee and professor in these situations that Yale does nothing to remedy this, and people like Mary Miller think cases will be "seen through" just because the administration knows about them
theantiyale 7 months, 4 weeks ago
Exactly the same type of sexual harassment happened to me as an employee of a FEMALE boss when I was 30. My reaction was to change jobs and try to FORGET the whole incident. If I, an entitled MALE, wanted to flee the emotional mess of the situation, why would you expect MORE of a FEMALE?
River_Tam 7 months, 4 weeks ago
This sounds very sexist, but I will take it as a commentary on the social power structures instead. Let me respond then - for a variety of reasons, administrators are MORE likely to take seriously females reporting males on sexual harassment than vice versa.
theantiyale 7 months, 4 weeks ago
Of course it is sexist. Thirty-seven year AGO (Befoe you were born!) I was living in a SEXIST world. I am reporting that event, and the unquestioned status of males at that time. It was the BEGINNING of the feminist revolt. The irony is, I would have been considered a sissy not to respond to the advance and immediate plunder the boss's ( Remember Mrs. Robinson? ) womanly treasures, had I made the issue public. The whole thing was terribly embarrassing)
Undergrad 7 months, 4 weeks ago
These are disturbing stories. The first one hits especially close to me because I'm a science major who's involved in research. It seems like the professor was dangling the prospect of a publication over her head and she felt she had to continue, even if he was harassing her, for the professional benefits that would come with the research, because it would be difficult to find another lab to work in that late in her Yale career, and to still come up with useful results. Science takes a long time, and most students tend to stick with one PI for their entire time at Yale, for very good reason, so it doesn't make sense to call the victim "naive" for wanting to continue the same project she had already been working on for years.
I believe, and I hope, that it's only a tiny minority of Yale professors who would actually do something like this. I still don't think the use of inflammatory language like "rape culture" is justified because it implies that somehow every man (or at least every straight man) at Yale is complicit in this harassment. But in the light of Yale's attempts to brush these people under the rug, the Title IX complaint is definitely justified. And it's not just the male members of the administration who are at fault (see Mary Miller's role). Shielding Yale from negative publicity at any cost is a motive that transcends gender boundaries.
PolliYale 7 months, 4 weeks ago
What a mess. I never would have thought that this could happen in the Yale University.I apologize for my English
OCD 7 months, 3 weeks ago
These types of accusations have been coming up at Yale for more than 30 years. Something is awry if they are true and the problem still continues.
Branford73 7 months, 3 weeks ago
These types of actions occur in the workplace from time to time. Somehow we think that academics, being smarter than the average bear, would not sexually harrass. Maybe the incidence is lower than the outside work world but it would be naive to think "it can't happen here." Inadequate administrative response has been a hallmark of workplace response, too. Hopefully, Yale will get better at remedying the abuses just as corporate America has gotten better at it the past decade or so.
I don't blame the victims for letting themselves be taken down the slippery slope of gradually increasing harassment. It's common for ambitious people to want to overcome small annoyances and both of the examples given in the article show a gradual escalation. One thinks, "Oh, I tolerated the last inappropriate statement/action, so I can get past this one, too." After all, the mentor/boss has power over the victim and even (maybe especially) the tough ones let the crap go on longer than they should in hopes of finishing whatever project or path they started.
CrazyBus 7 months, 3 weeks ago
This.
RexMottram08 7 months, 3 weeks ago
When you create an entitled academic class, they will seek their ill gotten reward.
The dirty secret is that Yale's professoriate harbors a truck load of mediocrities.
These scumbags should be castrated.
CC07 7 months, 3 weeks ago
This is disgusting. Thank you to the two alumna for speaking out. ...and can I just ask, per the second account: what is Yale doing hiring professors who have been accused of sexual harassment at their previous institutions? Is the incandescent brilliance of these men just so overwhelming that Yale doesn't really care if they abuse young women, as long as they churn out peer-reviewed articles? (Actually, don't answer that...)
SM12 7 months, 3 weeks ago
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alum00 7 months, 3 weeks ago
I really appreciate these women's decisions to come forward and talk, in anonymous terms, to the YDN. It's important for the Yale community to understand that incidents like this can (and do) happen at Yale. If it all stays in the shadows, I don't see how we can possibly have an intelligent discussion about institutional and cultural changes we might want. It's a burden, but we basically need victims to tell their stories, if possible.
I don't know why some people seem to think it's so inflammatory to use the word "culture" in relation to problems of rape and sexual assault. When I hear that word, I just hear an attempt to acknowledge that people's behaviors do not take place in a vacuum, and the culture we create at Yale sets norms that affect, to some degree, how much rape and sexual assault and sexual harassment occur on campus. Part of the culture we create at Yale comes from Yale's institutional responses to incidents such as those described here, as well as to more minor incidents.
These two disturbing stories -- especially the second one -- highlight the fact that Yale's institutional responses need a major overhaul, and an orientation toward helping victims rather than forcing them to sign non-disclosure agreements.
SM12 7 months, 3 weeks ago
There is something seriously wrong with our faculty at Yale and how their atrocious behavior is permitted, and thus implicitly encouraged.
There is a long history of disgustingly unethical and illegal behavior by the faculty at Yale, especially behavior toward females. The administration's dismissal of Naomi Wolf after she complained about sexual harassment by Harold Bloom is just one of many examples.
And sexual harassment is actually the least offensive in this long list of bad behavior by Yale faculty members. Just look up names like Antonio Lasaga (sexually abused a young child he was tutoring), James Van de Velde, Jay Jorgenson for more disgusting and more recent examples.
Sadly, Yale seems to promote this kind of behavior by turning a blind eye. These sorts of incidents would never be tolerated at the vast majority of public universities, and so they don't happen. For some bizarre reason, Yale seems happy to cultivate a faculty of sexual harassers and rapists. It is pathetic and disgusting.
Branford73 7 months, 3 weeks ago
If the YDN is going to allow this post to stand, then anyone who hasn't heard about Wolf's borderline libelous accusation, first made 20 years after the alleged event, should read this Yale alumna's take down of Wolf's New York magazine article about it: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2004/02/crying_wolf.html
Rosenkranz 7 months, 3 weeks ago
I am very sorry to hear these stories and I am glad that they have chosen to make them public. I have to say that I had not realized how badly the Yale administration has dealt with student complaints against those who possess power and status. Clearly something is very wrong with the way in which Yale is structured. Let us hope that this will lead to a major reform of the system. I also have to agree that I am scandalized by the fact that at the least the political science professor is not just still at Yale but is actually teaching right now. If the allegations are proven to be correct he should be stripped of his tenure and fired. But in the meantime he should be prevented from exercising any form of responsibility at Yale until the investigation is over and a determination is made as to the facts of the case. Aside from the Yale dimensions of these cases I was unclear from the article if there are criminal cases to be filed against the perpetrators?
TrueBlue 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Seconded. It's disgusting that an institution claiming to take its students' minds and well-being seriously would act with such irresponsible nonchalance towards recent graduates. It's as if alums only matter insofar as they are potential donors and parents of legacies....
dwightalum 7 months, 3 weeks ago
Both of these stories are shocking and disgusting. My heart goes out to both of these young women, who have suffered too much, and it is my hope that their cases will be resolved expeditiously. It is sobering, as an alum myself, to see the University's lack of concern for members of the Yale community once they have graduated.
Props to the YDN for sharing these important accounts with the larger Yale community. Keep us posted on these things. This, to me, is a striking instance of the University wishing to preserve the status quo at all costs, regardless of the harm done to a young woman and the rot festering beneath the surface.
I think that Yale's responses to both of these cases, as the year goes on, will give all of us a chance to see whether Yale is about the well-being of its community, or about an image. And that will dictate whether I donate to Yale this year, or to charities that will use the money better. I know that many men and women in the larger alumni community share my general sentiments.
HalliMalli 7 months, 3 weeks ago
I am ashamed at Yale's strategic sweeping under the rug of criminal behavior. I would not have expected this about my alma mater. I have heard from a very close friend who went through a similars situation. Being sexually harassed, especially if it is a mentor at this time of your life can leave permanent psychological damage. I cannot believe that the university has let this kind of behavior continue, even after it has been brought to their attention. Repeatedly.
As an alumna, I will not donate a penny, until I know that the university has implemented a strict enforcement of a no-tolerance policy that makes it clear to professors and students that incidences of sexual harassment will be dealt with, the way it should be. It's not a secret that professors have gotten away with sexual assaults, and if the administration continues to be lax about this, nothing will change.
omg 7 months, 3 weeks ago
I am friends with alumna #1 and all I can say is that she has been through a lot of hardships ever since this whole case started, including, indeed, somatic reactions such as hives... So it's very upsetting that this case hasn't been resolved/settled yet. I hope Yale will soon acknowledge her sufferings in a concrete way, and that justice is done. It's obviously tough for the administration to fire and jeopardize a faculty member's career, but they should put a blame of some sort on him, making sure he never misbehaves again vis-a-vis a student or assistant. On the other hand, instead of a spirit of underhandedness, they should give the alumna a concrete token of support and make it clear that everyone's sufferings count and is clearly heard and respected.
cantabrigian 7 months, 3 weeks ago
I'm commenting as a Harvard alumna, many of whose friends/family members are current or former Yale students. This story is of serious concern. Any professor who has acted in the manner described above cannot be permitted to remain in an academic teaching role at a university, where he (or she) is in a position of trust vis-a-vis young adults. The men in question should be thoroughly ashamed of the harm they have inflicted on those they were charged with teaching, mentoring, and employing; in addition to being flagrantly illegal, their conduct amounts to an egregious betrayal of trust. Yale's administration bears especial responsibility for failing to respond swiftly and severely, in order to punish these reprehensible professors and to protect the women in question (and others whom these professors might victimize in future).
If these facts came to light at Harvard, I would contact the administration directly as an irate alum. I would not further donate to the university unless their response was sufficiently forceful. I urge Yale students and alums to consider taking these steps. I also mentor prospective law school students. I intend to urge students weighing an offer from Yale against peer schools Stanford and Harvard to research the coverage of Yale's history of sexual harassment/assault in deciding whether Yale is really the institution with which they wish to affiliate (until it has adequately remedied these issues.)
ConsciousThought 7 months, 2 weeks ago
Thank you for coming forward, Case 1, Class of 2010. You are not alone. In reading your situation, I can almost replace the two names and would have a close replica of what happened to me. I also filed a complaint with US Dept of Ed, OCR.
For those who say they do not understand why we don't leave -- it is simple. We are given the right (via federal and state law) to be in a learning environment to learn, free of discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual assault. We are a captive audience in a learning environment because we have paid, chosen, and committed to be there. We never paid, chose or committed to be there to be excluded, sexually harassed/assaulted or stalked like this. We came to learn. It is that simple.
For those of us who have a commitment to finish a degree for our careers, we should not be forced out because of this. All of my female classmates were making A's in engineering/science. 75% of my female classmates dropped out last year. I was forced out due to the ongoing hostile environment.
It is my belief, absent the hostile environment (or even if universities began requiring the instigators to comply), you would see many more women in engineering/science disciplines, automatically. There would be no need whatsoever for the federal gov't., or private corporations such as Boeing, to throw millions at universities to "bring more women in".
Also, law (US Dept. of Educ.) requires universities to take whatever steps are necessary to objectively address the issues, stop the behavior, and prevent further unsafe behavior.
Why don't we leave? We are talking about pervasive: - Sexual harassment/assault and discrimination, that is intended by a male professor to be personal, for the purpose of forcing us out of our discipline.
- Sexual harassment included in class lectures, class events and class notes. - Behavior that would many times be considered a felony or crime if it happened a foot off-campus. - Response and retaliation of university staff that hinders a legitimate investigation, and which includes isolation and removal of evidence from the complainant.
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