The bullying of academics follows a pattern of horrendous, Orwellian elimination rituals, often hidden from the public. Despite the anti-bullying policies (often token), bullying is rife across campuses, and the victims (targets) often pay a heavy price.
"Nothing strengthens authority as much as silence." Leonardo da Vinci - "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men [or good women] do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
March 13, 2009
Faculty Incivility: Darla Twale, PhD
3 comments:
Anonymous
said...
It is good to hear from those who are speaking out against work place bullying in our universities.
We are learning about corruption in banking - the world needs to hear about the corruption in our universities where workplace bullying is rife.
Education, unlike banking, is a moral enterprise... the behaviour of some of society's most eminent academics is therefore even more shocking...
I am a single white tenured male who is being bullied a primarily all female department. I am a full professor, have a new book coming out next week, however have been called in my my dean along with another female colleague of 3 years (I have been here 15 years) and had my course schedule changed to work primarily with freshmen.....an insult in many cases.
Today we did course evaluations and a student came to me a told me that both my dean and the other colleague had oulled them aside a told him to be certain about his narrative answers on the evaluations. He came to me with a "heads up" and told me he did not know was going on, but I needed to look over my shoulder because he felt someone was out to get me (this guy is 40 years old and former military.
University bullying takes place when administrators promote a climate that supports it. When administrators refuse to intervene on the department level and, instead, allow the majority of a department conduct themselves in any manner they choose. Vulnerable faculty are those that differ on some variable from those in power. The difference may be gender, color, religion or even willingness to speak out. I am gathering information now. It is rarer for a white male to be in a minority in academics because academics have been ruled by white men-but it is not impossible. Even in those circumstance, to maintain bullying there has to be a climate that refuses to identify and punish bullying. It sound like you are in such a university. I am as well. The SUNY system (Binghamton University in particular) appears to be incapable of learning from the negative outcomes of bullying on other academic campuses. I would suggest the next step after gathering information is to unite all the disenfranchised faculty members-speak up and help empower others who were also treated poorly. If it is a climate that promotes bullying you have lots of kindred spirits out there. The trick is to find them. good luck.
3 comments:
It is good to hear from those who are speaking out against work place bullying in our universities.
We are learning about corruption in banking - the world needs to hear about the corruption in our universities where workplace bullying is rife.
Education, unlike banking, is a moral enterprise... the behaviour of some of society's most eminent academics is therefore even more shocking...
Aphra Behn
I am a single white tenured male who is being bullied a primarily all female department. I am a full professor, have a new book coming out next week, however have been called in my my dean along with another female colleague of 3 years (I have been here 15 years) and had my course schedule changed to work primarily with freshmen.....an insult in many cases.
Today we did course evaluations and a student came to me a told me that both my dean and the other colleague had oulled them aside a told him to be certain about his narrative answers on the evaluations. He came to me with a "heads up" and told me he did not know was going on, but I needed to look over my shoulder because he felt someone was out to get me (this guy is 40 years old and former military.
So what do I do now?
signed,
Confused and Angry
University bullying takes place when administrators promote a climate that supports it. When administrators refuse to intervene on the department level and, instead, allow the majority of a department conduct themselves in any manner they choose. Vulnerable faculty are those that differ on some variable from those in power. The difference may be gender, color, religion or even willingness to speak out. I am gathering information now. It is rarer for a white male to be in a minority in academics because academics have been ruled by white men-but it is not impossible. Even in those circumstance, to maintain bullying there has to be a climate that refuses to identify and punish bullying. It sound like you are in such a university. I am as well. The SUNY system (Binghamton University in particular) appears to be incapable of learning from the negative outcomes of bullying on other academic campuses. I would suggest the next step after gathering information is to unite all the disenfranchised faculty members-speak up and help empower others who were also treated poorly. If it is a climate that promotes bullying you have lots of kindred spirits out there. The trick is to find them. good luck.
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