Interviews on Women and Harassment in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

BY IRENE NGUN The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is conducting a study of the impacts of gender-related experiences on women in science, engineering, and medical fields, and they have contracted with RTI International to gather information for the study. RTI International plans to conduct one-hour, in-depth telephone interviews with approximately 40 women…

The Fight Over Feminism on Campus

BY JOHN K. WILSON Review of Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus by Laura Kipnis (HarperCollins, April 4, 2017) When Northwestern University professor Laura Kipnis wrote an irreverent essay for the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2015 about regulations on campus, and discussed a sexual assault case, it sparked discussion, praise, outrage, protest (literal mattress-waving…

On the University of California, IV: Sexual Harassment, “Respect,” and Tenure at Berkeley

BY HANK REICHMAN This is the fourth in a series of posts on issues in the University of California system, the nation’s premier public research institution. Previous posts in the series may be found here, here, and here.  On Friday, the University of California at Berkeley announced that Provost Claude Steele is stepping down from…

"Tell all the truth but tell it slant": Not in Recommendation Letters? (Girls and Boys Gone Wild in Tweed)

Recent news about a former provost who allegedly touched inappropriately, repeatedly inappropriately, colleagues, got me thinking about a serious and pervasive practice in higher education. This was after some initial sophomoric snickering and thoughts I am sure even the most “serious” academic would have after reading about this case. Letters of recommendation are written to assist…

FIRE’s Misleading Attack on CSU-Chico

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), “While all of 2011’s Speech Codes of the Month flagrantly violated students’ and faculty members’ right to free expression, two of them were so egregious that they deserve special mention as 2011’s Speech Codes of the Year.” But FIRE got a lot of things wrong…