October 31, 2017

"Three [tenured] Dartmouth College professors whose research had included studies of sexual desire and attractiveness have been put on paid leave..."

"... while a criminal investigation of alleged sexual misconduct is carried out, the authorities said Tuesday.... Several students hanging out at the Collis student center on Tuesday said they were surprised by the allegations because all three professors were established and respected intellectuals in their fields. They were also popular with students.... 'It’s creepy, even though we don’t really know what it is,' [one student] said. 'People have been pretty weirded out by this.'"

The NYT reports.

The top-rated comment over there: "Absolutely NO information about what happened or even about what is alleged! New York Times, I am impressed!"

Second-highest-rated comment: "I don't know the specifics in this case, but as a former Psych professor in the seventies at American colleges, I have to say that I can't recall ever being subjected to such intense and persistent seduction as I was by my female students. I took to keeping my office door open during 'visits' by my most ardent admirers and had to physically peel attractive young women off me. Maybe it was my animal magnetism, but my female colleagues never reported this kind of behavior on the part of their male students. In fact, men and women tend to have different reactions to authority figures and power in general, which is the real issue here: men are generally diffident about sucking up to it, while women attempt to seduce it. Asking a thirty year old to hold out forever in the face of such pulchritude is unreasonable, when we're talking about people who have not taken an oath of celibacy. By the way, no, I never had sex with a student: it seemed obviously unethical. But the flesh is weak, and it is facile to think of these men as predators and their students as victims."

63 comments:

Michael K said...

One was named Professor Venkman.

robother said...

Mayhap someone they assumed was a Sex Ed Major turned out be only a Minor. Premature matriculation has cut short many a sex researcher career.

buwaya said...

Henry Kissinger is vindicated.

mccullough said...

Sex cult

Hari said...

Academia is the next Hollywood.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Guess maybe it's time for colleges to stop with all the Sex Week promiscuity promotion bullshit.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

I'm tellin' ya, we're horseshoeing back around to Victorian times when women were too weak and delicate, and too poor in moral judgement, to mingle with men at school and in the workplace.

Virgil Hilts said...

As I posted in prior thread, my spider sense is whispering that this could be the fiasco that completes the Duke Lacrosse/VA gang rape trilogy.

johns said...

it sounds so incredibly dumb. if you are going to do "research", then protocols are needed. And if the "research" is on sex and attractiveness, holy shit. But i'm just envious, because i was a college professor in the seventies too. I had the wrong research topics, I guess.

Mr. Groovington said...

I can’t think of another poor behaviour so effectively terminated as by the Great Outing of 2017. A million men who made an aggressive pass are quaking with dread. Proactive apologies are being sent by the million. Never again, they’re thinking.

The Vault Dweller said...

Who uses the word pulchritude? I don't like that word. It has a sound that feels like the opposite of what the word means.

I too wonder what the investigation is about. The fact that it is a criminal investigation and not an administrative one, leads me to believe that nothing illegal happened. Not even counting the fact that there are have been no initial arrests, it seems like the preliminary step the administration would take to try and clear the professors. Then the University can say, "We fully cooperated with an independent criminal investigation and their conclusion, not ours, was that nothing illegal happened." I'm guessing some male professors had sex with some of their students. It is alarming that one students reaction is to question why the professors are on paid leave and not suspended without pay. I guess innocent until proven guilty is no longer en vogue.

Ken B said...

Welcome to the world of Rose McGowan. #RoseSalem

The Vault Dweller said...

If I were a male student at Dartmouth, I would wonder why the police don't handle all allegations of sexual misconduct.

gg6 said...

If this is what goes on in the “department of psychological and brain sciences”, I can’t even imagine what might be happening in Sociology, Political Science or Feminist Studies...ha, ha! I'm sorry I can't take such stuff seriously any more.
The only thing that interests me is why none of our avenging Feminist valkyries ever see fit to comment on the apparently out-of-control number of female grammar/HS teachers across the US having sexual 'flings' with minor male students?...Nothing to see here, move along please...?

campy said...

If I were a male student at Dartmouth, I would wonder why the police don't handle all allegations of sexual misconduct.

Because police are not sufficiently Woke.

Sprezzatura said...

Some hot gal staff do that stuff to some dude bosses.

It's an odd situation. I have massive self control and tons of options, but it's still hard to skip the invite, which I always do. I can see how many/most others would give any. BTW, I'm talking about the craziest levels of hotness y'all can think of. Hard to say no.

rhhardin said...

Psychology professors would always know what she wants, she thinks. A good catch.

rhhardin said...

Thurber cartoon: Psychiatrist about to phone his wife.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ahUB1kkaoRs/TnGLKwLsaSI/AAAAAAAALJU/Nzwj3AIAfC0/s1600/psychiatrist.jpg

Bay Area Guy said...

From the 2nd highest rated comment:

I took to keeping my office door open during 'visits' by my most ardent admirers and had to physically peel attractive young women off me. Maybe it was my animal magnetism, but my female colleagues never reported this kind of behavior on the part of their male students.

And they wonder why we think college perfessers are stoopid.

Dude, we didn't hit on female teachers. We hit on the mobs of hot female students.

Francisco D said...

As a psych doctoral student in the early 80's, I was aware of three affairs between doctoral students and professors, two of whom were married and two of whom I had great respect for. One is very well published and quite brilliant. All the affairs were consensual.

After I graduated, the brilliant one turned out to be a predator who aggressively scouted every incoming class with another professor. He was asked to leave and went to the U. of Michigan. Another, whom I respected married the student whom I knew to be a slut, perhaps reformed. She received an inappropriate fellowship after I left and that opened the floodgates. They lived happily until he passed.

The third was a creep who was always looking to get laid, although married/separated. He continues to be an associate professor. I like how my alma mater handled the situation.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

I've known for some time that the Left is crumbling, but I completely underestimated their enthusiasm for accelerating the process.

Big Mike said...

Please tell me they are on paid leave because they discovered (gee whiz!) that men prefer pretty women to ugly women, and this violates the university’s policy against “lookism.”

Virgil Hilts said...

If there is some there, there, it would be interesting if it had to do with hypnosis. I have read a fair amount concerning the history of hypnosis and it did not go out of favor and become disreputable because it did not work, but rather because it did and there were too many men educated in its use that could not resist its abuse. I still think this is Duke/VA stuff, but my backup guess if this is legit, is hypnosis.

Virgil Hilts said...

Whoh. One of the guys arrested - Kelly -- invited a hypnotist to Dartmouth at the end of last semester. Hmmmm.
http://www.thedartmouth.com/article/2017/05/julia-osullivan-hypnotist-hanover

Michael K said...

" Maybe it was my animal magnetism,"

A lot of nuts go into Psychology and Psychiatry, I have one in the family by marriage,.

Earnest Prole said...

Forty years ago, college-age females were full-grown adult women, capable of and responsible for their own decisions. Now they are considered girls.

Big Mike said...

Maybe the three discovered the irresistible pheromone, one whiff of which makes women go totally insane with lust. They’re under investigation for refusing to share the formula with the president of Dartmouth College.

Luke Lea said...

When I was in college in the 1960's, at least at Reed, affairs between students and faculty were accepted.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

The professor father of a family friend left his wife and elementary aged children to marry his hawt grad student. Repellent behavior, and he was judged roundly for it at the time, but they are still married decades later and I just saw them at a wedding recently. She's just another fat, gray haired middle aged lady now. Maybe it really was true love.

Francisco D said...

@Michael K.

More than a few nuts and incompetents go into the practice of medicine, now that you let ARNPs, PAs, DOs, and others perform medicine.

Psychology made a HUGE mistake by allowing the Psy.D.grads to sit for licensure. We will never recover. Based on my experience, most of these people are unknowing idiots.

I have less than 6 months to retirement!

rcocean said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rcocean said...

"Maybe it was my animal magnetism,"

At first, I thought the comment was sarcastic, but it seems he was serious. A few tweeks and "The Onion" could publish it.

And could people stop writing crap like " It was different time back in the (2000s, 1990s, 1980s)" - cause no it wasn't.

Everyone knew about sexual harassment.

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Left Bank of the Charles said...

Dartmouth, the original Animal House, birthplace of rape culture.

Michael K said...

"Psychology made a HUGE mistake by allowing the Psy.D.grads to sit for licensure. We will never recover."

Agreed. The family member is a professor of Psychiatry and is working her way through the family pissing off everyone.

Sebastian said...

A witch hunt will never run out of witches.

Michael K said...

I also agree about the DOs and NPs.

My wife was scheduled to have a procedure by a GI guy I've known for 35 years. She had to go to see his NP/PA on Friday because state law says you have to have a consultation at least a day before the procedure.

Today the NP/PA called and said she was not going to be in Friday and they would have to reschedule. My wife pointed out that we are driving from Arizona to have this GI guy do the procedure for followup. She didn't care. She wants a three day weekend, So she said they would "make an exception" about the day wait.

Medicine in the age of Aquarius.

Cato Renasci said...

As a grad student in the early ‘70s, I saw lots of predatory professors and teaching assistants. And, plenty of coeds who would cheerfully sleep their way to grades. I had one show up at my office wearing heels and a trench coat in a desperate attempt to save her grade. The most leftist departments were the worst -anthropology and sociology were notorious. A ring of sociology professors literally passed coeds from one to the other .... a girlfriend who was a sociology major was nonplussed (but acquiesed) she a professor she barely knew showed up at her apartment late one night, telling her that X, the professor she’d been sleeping with, said she was a great f*ck and would certainly be willing to f*ck him. Why is it the progs and leftis are the worst pigs.....

Sprezzatura said...

"Dude, we didn't hit on female teachers. We hit on the mobs of hot female students."

IOW: Don't feel bad professor.

I.e., you weren't alone re being alone re dude students lookin for lovin'/F-in'.

Jason said...

This just in: Female psych majors are fecking nutcases.

Fernandinande said...

whose research had included studies of sexual desire and attractiveness have been put on paid leave.

Making a wild guess that it's about their "sexist" research.

Michael K pontificated...
"Psychology made a HUGE mistake by allowing the Psy.D.grads to sit for licensure. We will never recover."

Agreed. The family member is a professor of Psychiatry and is working her way through the family pissing off everyone.


You agree that psychologists shouldn't be licensed because you know an unpleasant psychiatrist?

Impeccable logic.

Sprezzatura said...

"Impeccable logic."

That (and other peculiar tics, e.g., his routine of leaving a comment re his bedtime) is what makes him the funniest commenter in these threads.

And, he's not even trying!

Ralph L said...

Before she went lesbo, author Patricia Cornwell married one of her English professors a year after she graduated. I was 3 years behind her at a small school, and I don't remember a public scandal (though it was known), but he did give up a tenured professorship--to become a preacher!

Ken Mitchell said...

A former college professor of my acquaintance was often propositioned by young breathless coeds who would say, "I would do ANYTHING to get an A in this course!" The professor would lean in and in a leering voice, whisper "Would you .... study?"

His attitude was that even in Berkeley, he didn't need to get a complaint from the college - or from his wife.

ConquerorofAllFoesCheese said...

Yeah, 25 or so years ago I was a not handsome 40+ year old grad teaching assistant who had little impact on students' grades and I still got told "I'll do anything . . " sometimes in a large room with other GAs present. They have no shame.
A friend of mine and I were laughing about this and agreeing that the only defense was to play stupid and suggest extra readings, and study groups, and so on. A female colleague overheard us and was just outraged that we could believe this was happening.
Within the month *she* got an offer from a young female student. Boy was she upset. But we never knew whether it was because we were proven right or because the student thought our colleague was a lesbian.

Clawmute said...

I had any number of Sweet Young Things enter into my lab for counseling and I made sure that the door to my office was always open and that my tech was always close by and could keep me (but not the student) in sight.

My favorite was a student who, having failed miserably the first 2 of 3 tests bounced in (literally) and asked what she possibly do to pass the course. I told her she needed to score exceptionally well on the final.

I then said that she knew that's what I'd say. She said: "Yeah, but I thought I'd give it a try."

Henry said...

Ferananidinande said...

Making a wild guess that it's about their "sexist" research.

One thing that comes up in the current book about brain science that I'm reading (Behave by Robert Sapolsky) is that many of the behavioral studies in the 50s and 60s will never be repeated. If they were, people would be fired.

Big Mike said...

You know I never did get propositioned by an undergraduate trying to raise her grade. For much of that time I had a wedding ring on my finger. My intuition is that it wouldn’t matter much. Of course (1) I was a teaching ass’t overforty years ago, and (2) computer programming is more reliant on projects than on dexams.

Or maybe I was too ugly? Or such a great teacher that no one had trouble understanding the material?

You can stop laughing any time now.

Big Mike said...

I’m still going with the results of their research not being adequately PC. Much bigger sin than boinking a coed or two or twenty.

Yancey Ward said...

Interesting, isn't it, how the professors get better protection by Dartmouth than a male student might in a similar circumstance. You see, university administrators do understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty.

Tim said...

I had an affair with a female professor while in graduate school. In my view, she invited it very strongly and after our first "date", didn't even care that I had another girlfriend. No objection on my part, but I am sure it helped my grade and recommendations.

lee said...

See David Mamet's "Oleanna."

Silly Calabrese said...

You know what, young women will have sex with powerful authority figures no matter what any of us say or think.

Anthony said...

Thanks a LOT. I never got an attempted seduction. . . . . .probably because I have the sexual magnetism of a cat litter.

Even in the early 1990s, however, we (archaeology) TAs were told we should keep our office doors open during offie visits, although at the time it was so that no one could accuse us of harassment or something later.

tim in vermont said...

I taught a class once, and there was a girl who got googeley eyes. She was cute too. I'm not. It was sort of weird to me.

Kyzer SoSay said...

I was a corporate trainer for about 6 months at a large and well-known pharmacy benefit manager. I took to wearing a sport coat to work because it looked professional and sharp. Three weeks in I'd been approached no less than five times by female "students", both during breaks in the training session and walking to my car at the end of the day. Eventually I began a relationship with one of them - months later - that lasted over a year. Even this did not stop the approaches, however, and as soon as a non-training position opened I jumped to take it. It didn't completely end the issue because now I was even higher in the managagement food chain (and power is an attractive force all it's own), but it kept me much busier at work and mostly unapproachable, at least during the day.

AllenS said...

Damn, I was in the wrong business.

Jeff H said...

Wait wait wait wait wait. Women are not always victims? Men are not always predators? The devil, you say.

Jason said...

I was a high school teacher at age 23.

I was a little on the geeky side, but right out of infantry school and in very good shape.

A few of the senior girls were gunning for me. GUNNING for me! I only realize how much now in hindsight!

Somehow I never let any of them get anywhere with me... even the ones who very pointedly told me they were already 18 years old.

So I kind of expect the same of other people, y'know?

CJ said...

"I don't know the specifics in this case, but as a former Psych professor in the seventies at American colleges, I have to say that I can't recall ever being subjected to such intense and persistent seduction as I was by my female students. I took to keeping my office door open during 'visits' by my most ardent admirers and had to physically peel attractive young women off me. Maybe it was my animal magnetism, but my female colleagues never reported this kind of behavior on the part of their male students. In fact, men and women tend to have different reactions to authority figures and power in general, which is the real issue here: men are generally diffident about sucking up to it, while women attempt to seduce it. Asking a thirty year old to hold out forever in the face of such pulchritude is unreasonable, when we're talking about people who have not taken an oath of celibacy. By the way, no, I never had sex with a student: it seemed obviously unethical. But the flesh is weak, and it is facile to think of these men as predators and their students as victims."

OK, good. I was hoping this is what was going to happen. The Left has been shoving its sexual harassment BS down our throats for 30 years. Only now that it has turned on *them* and is biting them in the ass is it going to change. There were two possible ways it would change:
1) We'd effectively go back in time and become Hester Prynnes and Dimmesdales ie Puritans.
2) The Left would finally realize what a colossal fuckup it's been to try to legislate sexual morality.

Per the irresistible psych professor's comment, it seems as if even the Left may be taking the Red Pill and realizing that women are abusing the system as currently configured, as the system was DESIGNED to be able to be abused by women.

Stephen_Robbins said...

Jason said, in pertinent part:

"...
Somehow I never let any of them get anywhere with me... even the ones who very pointedly told me they were already 18 years old.

So I kind of expect the same of other people, y'know?"


What ... because you knew it would have been inappropriate and unfair to everyone else?

Or, because you were afraid of being caught?

Or, maybe on the theory that misery loves company?

fred said...

Old timer here. things have changed and colleges much more stringent in such matters, but administation like to bury such things for enrollment and reputation purposes. 3 in one dept is most unusual--if all in one academic year. Now: in my experience, profs in psy dept often also did therapy stuff on the side, and,if this is so with these 3, there may be additional issues.

Craig said...

Finally, after more than a year, we learn more details about this thanks to a lawsuit:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/us/dartmouth-professors-sexual-harassment.html