McGill's Shame Continues

Really?  Back at it again? I have repeated referred to a particular serial sexual harasser in McGill's Political Science department, but obliquely so.  Why obliquely so?  Because I am not sure what the consequences are for me of violating the confidentiality agreements of a place I used to work and because I didn't want people to speculate about who received this guy's unwanted attention. 

Well, I just learned as a result of this post this morning that the same guy is back at it.  When he was caught during my time there, only a few faculty knew.  They may have wondered why he got moved out of his office in a remote location and put next to my office.  I apparently was supposed to babysit/monitor him (which was strange since I only learned of his behavior informally, not through the administration).  But that was temporary, apparently, as I left and the next guy in that office probably didn't know that oversight of this guy came with the office (and I think the harasser moved back to his remote location where he can predate without oversight). His ban of supervising grad students apparently has lapsed as well.  When I was on grad admissions, I tried to keep students who wanted to do Mideast or peacebuilding from coming to McGill because I had little confidence that they would stay away from him.

Yes, most of the students knew because word gets around, but there was no guarantee that the word would keep being shared over time and all it takes is for a new student to have a few interactions with a serial harasser to have their trust in the institution and in academia irrevocably broken ... especially when the institution knows but does little.

The confidentiality that is thrown over the situation means that the prof in question appears to get away with it--those who know he commits these acts again and again do not see any consequences and those who don't know think nothing of it, perhaps even referring students to him if they develop an interest in Mideast politics and/or peacebuilding.

There, alas, is no internet trail to follow (there was once a post on Rate my prof about him but it disappeared) ....

Anyhow, as I have said before, if you have students or are a student thinking of going to McGill's political science program, I'd be willing to be more specific.  It is a great school and a great program with mostly great people, but there is poison within and it continues to remain and it remains under-identified and under-sanctioned.