Geoff Marcy and Sexual Harassment

[Rommie]

So for those who missed it, astronomy is in a major scandal these past few days.

Summary: Geoff Marcy the famous planet hunter has been sexually harassing women for years, has admitted to it, UC-Berkeley's investigation concludes that it's true and essentially says "ok, don't do it again!" Even though by harassment I mean "would be arrested for assault if he did that to a woman on the street"- groping women at conferences and the like- and while it's not in the article, the Berkeley astronomy dept head's response was atrocious, with no sympathy expressed for the victims and instead saying "of course, this is hardest on Geoff right now."

Absolutely insane. But you guys know me, I'm pretty happy this is now out in the open and people are actually discussing it.

[vendic]

Asshole.

[geonuc]

Yeah, that last part of the department head's email was not well thought out, to say the least.

[pumpkinpi]

This sickens me.

His response? "While I do not agree with each complaint that was made, it is clear that my behavior was unwelcomed by some women,” Marcy wrote. “It is difficult to express how painful it is for me to realize that I was a source of distress for any of my women colleagues, however unintentional.”"

BS. He probably thinks this suffices for an apology because he admits to "some" of the behavior. "Source of distress?" It goes much deeper than that for the victims.

[Rommie]

Yeah, this NY Times article has been heavily criticized as well. It has a bit more info in it though because, shocker, that particular journalist has a long working relationship with Marcy.

The quotes from his wife are pretty priceless though. I mean, I know that's the sort of thing a wife would say when learning her husband is an awful POS, but damn.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Asshole.

Seconded

Yeah, that last part of the department head's email was not well thought out, to say the least.

Absolutely

[Rommie]

Update, Marcy is now resigning from his position at Berkeley and all other committees he was on. Definitely donezo.

That said, I do wonder if the same thing would've happened if Marcy hadn't been quite so brazen. He was assaulting women, which is pretty darn reprehensible, but if he had just done creepy comments there's a good chance it would've been brushed off as "just Geoff."

[SciFiFisher]

Update, Marcy is now resigning from his position at Berkeley and all other committees he was on. Definitely donezo.

That said, I do wonder if the same thing would've happened if Marcy hadn't been quite so brazen. He was assaulting women, which is pretty darn reprehensible, but if he had just done creepy comments there's a good chance it would've been brushed off as "just Geoff."

Sounds like the board gave him an ultimatim. "Make this easy for us and we won't sack your butt".

[Rommie]

Update, Marcy is now resigning from his position at Berkeley and all other committees he was on. Definitely donezo.

That said, I do wonder if the same thing would've happened if Marcy hadn't been quite so brazen. He was assaulting women, which is pretty darn reprehensible, but if he had just done creepy comments there's a good chance it would've been brushed off as "just Geoff."

Sounds like the board gave him an ultimatim. "Make this easy for us and we won't sack your butt".

Actually the day before he resigned Berkeley went on record saying they wouldn't fire him. But when literally all the members of your department (save one) sign a letter saying you should quit, and every professional society is voting to rescind your membership, I'm pretty sure you would see the writing on the wall.

Interestingly, this isn't the only story like this that's going to surface- the grapevine gossip tells me that there is now a famous LIGO prof at Caltech who is on a year of unpaid leave and will have a statement released about him soon (as unis see it's not a good idea to let this fester and come out publicly when you can't control it). I don't know all the details, but it has involved the spouse of a faculty member here (who is also an astronomer) and that guy was also spreading nasty rumors about her work and worth when she rebuked him...

[geonuc]

Phil Plait's article on Marcy's resignation:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronom ... unity.html

As usual, I find his words reasonable and well thought out.

[SciFiFisher]

I know we are having a challenge with addressing this issue in the military. And we really really want to fix it.

[Rommie]

Yesterday I was chatting about this to a younger faculty member over coffee, my adviser came in and while he agreed what Marcy did was unacceptable he thought the fact that the man has been ostricized from astronomy was "too harsh." Even though the guy has been pulling this stuff since the 1980s and hasn't really shown any remorse for his actions. Then we had the crazy old emeritus professor join us and start talking about how society has lost a lot because you're no longer allowed to just hug women, now you have to worry about if it's inappropriate or not.

I don't make this shit up people.

[squ1d]

It's pretty obvious that your average MALE* nerd needs to go to another "filler school" for 5 years to adjust their shit.

*edit

[Rommie]

Today this week we are now shocked because the Christian Ott case is out in the open (which I'd heard about months ago), and a Congresswoman introduced new legislation with regards to sexual harassment in academia and Tim Slater.

Pretty awful stuff. Almost makes me feel out of place because nothing "that bad" happened to me years ago, thank goodness.

[vendic]

This is a huge problem in the astronomy field, I feel because astronomers are always talking about the big bang but rarely getting it.