With the news flooded with information about the Ukrainian crisis (and President Biden’s involvement), Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, the newest COVID variant, the next booster shot, and various incidents at the Oscars, many people may have missed the most recent round of college scandals.
Since the 2019 college admissions scandal involving the use of money to boost test scores and the bribing of college officials, several universities have continued to make news with a variety of scandals.
In 2020, information came to light that a Harvard University anthropology professor was allegedly sexually harassing various graduate students; Lilia Kilburn was the first graduate student to bring accusations of being kissed, hugged, and groped to the university. In February 2022, Harvard apparently decided the appropriate next step would be to illegally procure Ms. Kilburn’s therapy records. The university then gave these notes to Kilburn’s abuser, John Comaroff, who tried to use them to undermine Kilbirn’s credibility.
In the lawsuit Kilburn and two others filed in Boston federal court against Harvard, the university was accused of ignoring years of allegations against Comaroff and allowing him to intimidate students into silence by threatening their academic careers. Anonymous charges dating back to 2012—when Comaroff was a professor at the University of Chicago—serve as additional evidence. Comaroff has been placed on administrative leave for at least this semester.
Just before the lawsuit, more than 90 professionals within Harvard and other universities signed letters defending Comaroff, though such letters were retracted after the lawsuit was filed.
Many Harvard students are outraged (and rightfully so) by the university’s attempt to sweep this disgraceful behavior under the rug. Harvard is an elite university with a reputation to protect. However, the university also has a moral obligation to protect its students and faculty from harassment. To learn more about this lawsuit, click here.
Harvard is not alone. The University of Michigan and Florida International University have had recent issues with sexual harassment from their very own presidents. When harassment exists at the very highest level of the university, saving face becomes incredibly challenging.
The dishonesty is not restricted to whitewashing wrongdoing. At Columbia University, math professor Michael Thaddeus has suggested that the university published inaccurate data about itself; correcting this data would threaten the university’s No. 2 national ranking.
As the New York Times reported, “Searching further, he said he found discrepancies with other sources of data that he believes made undergraduate class sizes look smaller than they are, made instructional spending look bigger than it is and made professors look more highly educated than they are.”
Thaddeus has admitted that he has made an effort to challenge Columbia’s administration on various topics. It is a sad state of affairs if the world must rely on individuals like Thaddeus to be the disrupters rather than being able to trust the nation’s most prestigious institutions of education. To learn more about Columbia’s newest allegations, click here.
Prior to this discovery of falsified data, Columbia’s Psychiatry Department Chair Jeffrey Lieberman was suspended after posting a racist and sexist tweet in response to a photo of Nyakim Gatwech, an American model of South Sudanese descent.
So many universities have had faculty and administrators accused of sexual harassment, leading the public to conclude that something about the current university administration condones such behavior. These men should not be in positions of power, to begin with; once such allegations come to light, they should be swiftly removed from their positions, and the universities should take action. Colleges should prioritize the well-being of their students above the preservation of their own reputations.
Since the 2019 college admissions scandal involving the use of money to boost test scores and the bribing of college officials, several universities have continued to make news with a variety of scandals.
In 2020, information came to light that a Harvard University anthropology professor was allegedly sexually harassing various graduate students; Lilia Kilburn was the first graduate student to bring accusations of being kissed, hugged, and groped to the university. In February 2022, Harvard apparently decided the appropriate next step would be to illegally procure Ms. Kilburn’s therapy records. The university then gave these notes to Kilburn’s abuser, John Comaroff, who tried to use them to undermine Kilbirn’s credibility.
In the lawsuit Kilburn and two others filed in Boston federal court against Harvard, the university was accused of ignoring years of allegations against Comaroff and allowing him to intimidate students into silence by threatening their academic careers. Anonymous charges dating back to 2012—when Comaroff was a professor at the University of Chicago—serve as additional evidence. Comaroff has been placed on administrative leave for at least this semester.
Just before the lawsuit, more than 90 professionals within Harvard and other universities signed letters defending Comaroff, though such letters were retracted after the lawsuit was filed.
Many Harvard students are outraged (and rightfully so) by the university’s attempt to sweep this disgraceful behavior under the rug. Harvard is an elite university with a reputation to protect. However, the university also has a moral obligation to protect its students and faculty from harassment. To learn more about this lawsuit, click here.
Harvard is not alone. The University of Michigan and Florida International University have had recent issues with sexual harassment from their very own presidents. When harassment exists at the very highest level of the university, saving face becomes incredibly challenging.
The dishonesty is not restricted to whitewashing wrongdoing. At Columbia University, math professor Michael Thaddeus has suggested that the university published inaccurate data about itself; correcting this data would threaten the university’s No. 2 national ranking.
As the New York Times reported, “Searching further, he said he found discrepancies with other sources of data that he believes made undergraduate class sizes look smaller than they are, made instructional spending look bigger than it is and made professors look more highly educated than they are.”
Thaddeus has admitted that he has made an effort to challenge Columbia’s administration on various topics. It is a sad state of affairs if the world must rely on individuals like Thaddeus to be the disrupters rather than being able to trust the nation’s most prestigious institutions of education. To learn more about Columbia’s newest allegations, click here.
Prior to this discovery of falsified data, Columbia’s Psychiatry Department Chair Jeffrey Lieberman was suspended after posting a racist and sexist tweet in response to a photo of Nyakim Gatwech, an American model of South Sudanese descent.
So many universities have had faculty and administrators accused of sexual harassment, leading the public to conclude that something about the current university administration condones such behavior. These men should not be in positions of power, to begin with; once such allegations come to light, they should be swiftly removed from their positions, and the universities should take action. Colleges should prioritize the well-being of their students above the preservation of their own reputations.