Comments on: Physics Graduate School

By: Sexual Harassment Training

Sexual Harassment Training — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 16:25:35 +0000

If it sounds iffy.. just dont say it.

By: Ben Zvan

Ben Zvan — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:13:31 +0000

Sounds like this orientation session should be longer:
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2009/08/10/oriented/

By: travc

travc — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:18:38 +0000

There is (at least was) an unwritten rule around Caltech when I was there as an undergrad.
If someone is annoying you, first assume they are just totally socially inept and inform them bluntly of their offense. If they continue, then you can get righteously pissed off, otherwise no harm no foul. Corollary: If someone tells you bluntly to stop doing something that annoys or creeps them out, roll with it even if they are misunderstanding you (assume they are just clueless and misinterpreting your actions).

There is certainly a lot of sexism and generally creepy behaviour, but a good chunk of it is just social ineptitude.

There was a specific physics prof (most notable among several such examples) who was horribly sexist and lecherous. Females were well warned, but the prof was literally irreplaceable (top of his subfield by a good stretch). Females did work for him anyway (including a friend of mine) because he was really that good, but had other profs in the department who would ‘have their back’ and intervene on their behalf when needed (the other profs got to feel good about helping out, collaborate on work, and poach great students who finally got fed up with the letch… so a win win in an odd way.)

Issues of stealing work (which I still run into regularly) are much more serious IMO. Academic honesty is a fundamental and violations cannot be tolerated. Someone who steals their students (or anyone’s) work is by definition not a good scientist. Places where people’s name matters more than their work often allow this sort of thing to go on, but that is a mistake which will hurt them in the long run.

By: Mike Haubrich

Mike Haubrich — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:43:27 +0000

Yep. I just try to stay away from commenting on people’s clothes in the workplace period, anyway. Unless it is to ask someone if they have a job interview scheduled. That’s just my way of letting them know they look really sharp, and in fact is usually the only occasion in a call center that merits dressing really well. I don’t think it is all that difficult a concept to understand, and I wonder why people don’t realize that at work people would rather be complimented on their work than their appearance.

By: D. C. Sessions

D. C. Sessions — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 23:12:38 +0000

Context counts. A lot.

It’s one thing to comment on a woman’s skirt in a mixed group and all you’re commenting on is the skirt — clothing is, after all, a social statement and “that color works for you” is just recognition of that.

It’s another matter to comment on her skirt when she’s the only woman in the group. Even if meant innocently, it highlights the fact that she is the only woman in the group.

Context counts. A lot.

By: Peggy

Peggy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:54:40 +0000

Peter: I hope it was true that your program was friendly to women, but keep in mind that as a man you might not have been aware of or even privy to such interactions. Note that part of what Physics Chair describes wasn’t outright harassment, but just being made to feel “other” – you don’t need someone to tell you right out “you don’t belong” when you are being shown that you don’t belong in dozens of tiny ways.

I’m glad Physics Chair found a program that suited her.

By: Rystefn

Rystefn — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:38:09 +0000

The little things add up. Sometimes they add up quickly. I imagine it leaves a lot of people wondering what is and isn’t a part of the problem (and I know it leaves some people assuming lots of things are issues that are completely innocent). Generally, I’d say that the advice about asking “what does that mean” may be the most useful thing a person could take away from this.

By: peter

peter — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:35:37 +0000

Is there something wrong with “physics” students? I guess abstract thinking makes them incapable of socially acceptable behaviour.
I had studied agrology for four years, with about three female students among 30 or so male students in the mid to lare seventies, and I cannot recall any untoward behaviour. The female students were well accepted, and participated fully. I remember working on a feasibility study with one of them, and the relationship was professional.
But that was in Germany, and maybe the US still has issues when it comes to gender and even racial equality.
I find the behaviour addressed in the posting disgusting, unworthy of anybody engaged in intellectual pursuits and simply unacceptable.
It reminds me strongly of the scene in “BORAT”, where he encounters exactly those idiots in the motorhome.
If that is the quality of American students – shut down the universities, and let them do work in the field – not fieldwork, but “field” work. Maybe Mao’s ideas had some merit.