Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: Readers React on Social Media; New York Times, 2/4/16

New York Times; Sexual Harassment in the Sciences: Readers React on Social Media:

"On Tuesday, Amy Harmon reported that a prominent professor at the University of Chicago had stepped down in response to accusations of sexual harassment. The article ignited a heated discussion on Twitter, with some readers sharing their experiences of harassment in the science field.

The professor, Jason Lieb, a molecular biologist, made unwelcome sexual advances to several female graduate students at an off-campus retreat of the molecular biosciences division, according to a university investigation letter obtained by The New York Times. Mr. Lieb, 43, also engaged in sexual activity with a student who was “incapacitated due to alcohol and therefore could not consent.”

The article highlighted an increasingly tense debate over how universities deal with harassment claims in their science departments. Students and faculty members at the University of Chicago blamed the school, saying it overlooked previous accusations against Mr. Lieb when he worked at the University of North Carolina, and did not find out why he resigned abruptly from Princeton University after just seven months.

Below is a selection of the responses to the article on Twitter."

Chicago Professor Resigns Amid Sexual Misconduct Investigation; New York Times, 2/2/16

Amy Harmon, New York Times; Chicago Professor Resigns Amid Sexual Misconduct Investigation:

"Both the University of California, Berkeley, and the California Institute of Technology have fielded criticism recently for failing to publicly acknowledge their own conclusions that a prominent male scientist on each faculty had harassed female students until the details were uncovered by news media. A third case was reportedly unearthed only because of a bureaucratic error at the University of Arizona.

“Although institutions proclaim that they have zero tolerance for abuse of the policies that they claim to enforce, too often their primary concern seems to be secrecy and reputation management,” the science journal Nature wrote in a Jan. 20 editorial headlined “Harassment Victims Deserve Better.”

At Chicago, students praised the university for swift and decisive action. But some students and faculty members also raised pointed questions about whether the university had placed female graduate students at risk by hiring Dr. Lieb, who brought scientific cachet and a record of winning lucrative grants to a department that had recently lost two of its stars to other institutions.

He was put on staff despite potential warning signs.

Before he was hired, molecular biologists on the University of Chicago faculty and at other academic institutions received emails from an anonymous address stating that Dr. Lieb had faced allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct at previous jobs at Princeton and the University of North Carolina."