What is this? Another case of academics behaving badly? And specifically, academics involve in neuroscience research?
The Psychological and Brain Science department at Dartmouth is experiencing a bit of upheaval, again based on sexual misconduct. The stories have all been a bit vague on the details, but it was serious enough that one faculty member’s tenure was about to be revoked, and two others are under investigation.
Psychological and brain sciences professor Todd Heatherton has elected to retire immediately following a recommendation from Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Elizabeth Smith, upheld by the faculty-elected Review Committee, that his tenure be revoked and his employment terminated. Smith’s recommendation follows a review of Heatherton by an external investigator for sexual misconduct. Professors Bill Kelley and Paul Whalen of the PBS department, who are also under investigation for sexual misconduct, remain under review.
In a press release provided by his lawyer Julie Moore, Heatherton stated that he retired because he thought it was best for his family, the College and the graduate students involved in the investigation.
Oh, that familiar song. “I was a reprehensible shit for years, but now I’m committing a selfless act of career suicide for my family’s sake, so forgive me.” Late-in-life remorse is such a useful card to play, especially when the hammer is about to come down anyway.
This has been building for a while — there were reports months ago about a growing criminal investigation.
Three tenured professors from the psychological and brain sciences department at Dartmouth College—Todd Heatherton, Bill Kelley, and Paul Whalen—are targets of a criminal investigation, according to official statements from Dartmouth’s president and the New Hampshire attorney general on Oct. 31. The school, which has variously described the allegations as referring to “serious misconduct” and “sexual misconduct,” had already launched its own internal investigation of the three men. Heatherton, Kelley, and Whalen are all on paid leave with restricted campus access, according to the statement from Dartmouth’s president. Heatherton also lost his affiliation at New York University, where he had been a visiting scholar since July.
Again, the details are lacking, but whatever they were, they were sufficient to prompt 15 students and post-docs to make a complaint and bring in outside law enforcement. University administrations hate bringing in the law from outside, and that more than anything tells me there is an awful lot lurking beneath the official statements. And also that they’re actually revoking tenure for at least one professor.
The professors — Todd Heatherton, Bill Kelley and Paul Whalen — are under investigation by both college and law enforcement officials for sexual misconduct.
“We wish to dispel any sensational or inaccurate accounts of these allegations and to counteract any efforts to minimize their severity,” the statement reads. “In our collective experience, these professors have all created a hostile academic environment in which sexual harassment is normalized.” (Scroll down to read the statement in full.)
Beyond the written statement, several students also described to the paper a culture of drinking where the line between professional and personal interactions was often blurred.
OK, I confess: I’m also a graduate of a neuro program, the Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. Also, for many years it was a tradition for the lab to stroll over to a nearby bar late on Friday afternoon and shoot pool and share a pitcher of beer, and faculty were often there, socializing. That’s a good thing. But there was no drinking to excess, no sex talk, and I honestly cannot imagine my advisor, Chuck Kimmel, behaving in any way other than with respect and kindness to his students.
OK, sometimes he could get a little cranky. There were a few clashes. But nothing where we ever felt a lack of decency in our treatment.
While informality and social interaction are good, there are lines that shouldn’t be crossed — lines that are there to protect students and faculty together. Dartmouth PBS seems to have made a practice of crossing them.
You should say something about tenure and its revocation. Isn’t all tenure including yours weakened by revocation?
jack16
Depends on the cause. Tenure is not carte blanche. It just says you’re free to explore new ideas, but it’s still accompanied by professional obligations. Sending dick pics or fondling students are not academic freedom issues that are protected by tenure.
What weakens it is when people get away with abusing it.
That’s probably for the best. “Retiring” or resigning – possibly into a cushy new job elsewhere – to avoid those darned unfair consequences of one’s actions, whether merely deplorable or criminal as well, is too common by far.
But why are there so few women in science? It must be because they like babies.
Man, I went to grad school with Heatherton and was friendly with both him and his girlfriend. Like many of these cases, he seemed quite nice, although definitely a “guy’s guy”. It’s also the case that I found out in retrospect that many of the department profs engaged at the time in behavior that would have easily gotten them fired or even charged today, so the whole environment was seriously toxic. I suppose if your academic mentors model that kind of behavior in grad school, it’s not surprising it persists in their students.
I’m noting the difference between Rochester and Dartmouth. Certainly both administrations are madly trying to cover their asses; Dartmouth is pretty good at it, and Rochester is awful. It particularly points up Rochester’s claim that they’re helpless, just helpless, because tenure — like, you can’t possibly have a process for such things. They look as desperate as a cat trying to bury shit on a glass roof, and they’ll have about as much success.
Nah, it’s not just neurobiology.
https://splinternews.com/in-academia-professors-coming-onto-you-is-on-the-sylla-1826669829
From Giliell:
If I could quote this a hundred thousand times where college and university execs and department heads would be forced to read every single instance, I would. Although, I suppose first they’d need to read the Rochester & Dartmouth stories a hundred thousand times, but that’s a feature not a bug.
@PZ:
So, I know nothing about tenure, but I’d like to compare it to something else and see if I’m understanding correctly.
Recently I discussed the Aaron Persky recall over on Pervert Justice. In that case Persky abused judicial discretion to give a sentence to Brock Turner that was clearly outside of what was intended for the crime of which he was convicted. The committee assigned to discipline judges who violate judicial ethics declined to hold him accountable in any way.
In response, two things happened:
1. The California Assembly passed new mandatory minimum legislation so that zero judges would have the discretion that this particular judge abused, and
2. The public recalled him, ending Persky’s term on the bench 4 years early.
While there were some legal idiots – and I’m talking Stanford law professors here – thought that the recall harmed judicial independence and the discretion necessary for judges to counter prosecutors’ tendency to overcharge and generally to provide leniency where truly appropriate, I think it’s clear that if the judicial oversight system worked and disciplined Persky from the inside – making a clear statement that abusing one’s discretion in that way is an ethical violation – then neither the new mandatory minimums nor the recall would have been necessary.
So, in parallel, are you trying to say that the failure to hold bad profs accountable harms tenure because people assume that tenure itself (not bad administrators or a culture of accountability avoidance) is what enables the Jaegers of the academic world … which then results in momentum towards reducing the protections of tenure?
It seems like that’s probably what you’re getting at, but I’m not sure so I’m trying to compare it to a situation where I do understand the dynamics.
Cripdyke: Yes.
@PZ:
Y’know, with Rochester, Dartmouth & William Paterson and the implications of these cases on tenure, I think maybe you’ve found that topic for tomorrow where you have something to say without speaking over others that are more directly affected.
Details are sparse, but the Danforth Center seems to have acted swiftly after complaints against a prominent plant biologist: https://www.stltoday.com/business/local/top-danforth-center-plant-scientist-terminated-after-investigation-into-inappropriate/article_2e1772c0-062c-5cd7-b106-20206f9a4df9.html