Will Me Too Activism Cost Professor Her Job?
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Source: Inside Higher Ed
BethAnn McLaughlin is a hero to many women in academe, especially those in science. She founded a nonprofit called #MeTooSTEM to draw attention to the harassment of women in academic science, much by prominent men who are considered leaders of their fields.
She has spoken out against harassholes and has named names in public speeches, asking why some scientists are still showered with honors for their science despite the way they have treated women. She has urged members of the National Academy of Sciences to resign unless all harassers are removed from its ranks.
McLaughlin also had notable success -- where others have complained for years and achieved nothing -- in taking on Rate My Professors last year. McLaughlin, assistant professor of neurology and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University, tweeted at the website that ranks faculty members, "Life is hard enough for female professors. Your 'chili pepper' rating of our 'hotness' is obnoxious and utterly irrelevant to our teaching. Please remove it because #TimesUP and you need to do better." After a social media campaign took off to support her request, Rate My Professors announced it would take down the dubious "hotness" rating.
As McLaughlin's activism has grown, some of it has struck close to home. A faculty committee that had endorsed her tenure bid reversed itself, Science reported. The action came amid investigations of McLaughlin for allegedly posting anonymous derogatory comments about colleagues, and the complaint reportedly came from a professor against whom McLaughlin had spoken in a sexual harassment investigation. While Vanderbilt never found her guilty of violating any rules, the tenure process went from moving to not moving. She is in danger of being out of a job at the end of this month.
Read more: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/02/22/scientists-rally-around-vanderbilt-professor-whose-tenure-bid-appeared-hit
This sucks so much....
tblue37
(64,982 posts)kairos12
(12,817 posts)a la izquierda
(11,784 posts)And Ive kept my head down until I get tenure, though I did just tell my boss Im resigning if campus carry becomes law here in WV. Anyway, If her tenure file is valid and they deny her, then she probably has a lawsuit.
Just because a department supports tenure doesnt mean shit until folks at the top sign off. If you raise what sound like super valid issues, but that comes across as trouble-making...well good luck getting senior admin to care.
Its a shit system.
bobbieinok
(12,858 posts)DonViejo
(60,536 posts)The consensus of Forum Hosts agrees this news is not LBN, but rather, a feature article about the Professor's activism with opinion and analysis about something that might happen.
Hosts encourage you to post the article in any and/or all of the following Forums or Groups: the General Discussions Forum, the Education Group, the Women's Rights Group, the Feminism Group