Bullying

A certain fraction of my work as faculty ombudsperson is spent dealing with bullying and its consequences. Please note:  I have neither the training nor experience to investigate claims, so I am always aware that my visitors as ombudsperson tell the truth from their perspective which is not and can not be perfectly accurate and true. When I present such claims below please try as I do to always be aware that they are claims and not facts which differ in many ways.

When I was young my parents encouraged me to stand up to bullies, something that is easier to encourage than to do. Being small of stature I was on the receiving end of a good deal of bullying until I realized that I could often talk or joke my way out of it. I say this only to stress that I understand how weak such encouragement is and shy away from relying upon it when working with others who are on the receiving end.

Academia draws folk who tend not not be normal. Thankfully that is often in a good way in terms of clarity of reasoning and passion for discovery. It also seems to attract a fair number of bullies. Sometimes it takes a while for bullying to be identified since it rarely involves physical violence and because we faculty like to think that we are far away from the grade school playground and what occurs there.

But there are a lot of folk in academia who try to have people do what they want them to do through implicit or explicit threats, whether it be career sabotage or verbal abuse or any mixture thereof. Bullying is the appropriate word for the behavior even if the folk exhibiting it have terminal degrees in their fields.

From my point of view which is pretty isolated from the pain and suffering of the bullying of my visitors the power of the bully in academia lies in obscurity. If what they do becomes known far and wide enough they are removed from whatever role gives them the opportunity to bully. Sometimes that is dismissal (and tenured faculty can be dismissed although not easily nor casually) and sometimes it is relocation to a position of less power and access.  Universities pride themselves on being free markets of ideas and not the territories of warlords and so there is incentive for administrators to act before students flee a major or department.

When I have a visitor as ombudsperson I always offer advice along a time-line; what issues should be addressed immediately and what are the mid- and long-term goals. Victims of bullies need to feel protected at once and so support letters from colleagues and students can often help, particularly during probationary periods. Asking a victim to stand up to a bully is rarely a good and useful step. Enlisting allies is.

Depriving the bully of their obscurity addresses the longer-term issues. I note that North Carolina is a single-person consent state for recording. If the bullying extends to faculty, staff, and/or students with smart phones then those phones should be recording.  Recordings delivered to the dean and/or the provost usually lead to action even when those folk prefer to work in ignorance of such problems.

Ultimately it is the role of the administrators who have both power and responsibility in these areas to intervene. My advice often brainstorms about how to make this happen in a given context. Not all administrators handle confidential reporting well, and it is on me as ombudsperson to give advice tailored to the context.

The bigger picture ultimately is pushing our academic community to admit to itself that bullying occurs and what can be done to lessen its impact and make it more transparent.

Fuzzy fuzzy stuff. Math problems are SO much easier.