It’s good to see that Northwestern is drowning in money so much that it needs to waste it on prosecuting professors for writing essays:
who became the subject of two Title IX complaints after publishing an essay in The Chronicle Review, has been cleared of wrongdoing by the university under the federal civil-rights law, which requires colleges to respond to reports of sexual misconduct.
Using Title IX to investigate people for writing articles is beyond outrageous. It is even more outrageous that all this money did not go towards promoting research or improving teaching.
Here is the Kipnis story for those who missed it.
I don’t believe I will ever be able to blog under my own name because as the standard of living improves and our society grows richer, people tend do find offense in more and more outlandish things.
Human beings need adversity to overcome and when there is none, they will invent it. These complaints against mean professors who inflict horrifying damage by saying or writing something will keep growing more frequent. I have personally experienced an explosion in them since the recession started rolling back.
Clarissa's Blog 
Actually, it’s the decline in standard of living in the US that drives a lot of this behavior.
LikeLike
Decline compared to what? What is the frame of reference?
I had in mind Patrick Bronte’s story when I was writing the post, so that’s my point of reference.
LikeLike
When I first heard about this, I wondered whether the students are actually undercover right wingers and this is all part of some Byzantine plot to erode support for title IX…
LikeLike
There is absolutely a trend among students of all political persuasion to freak out about the slightest discomfort they come to experience. I’m definitely noticing a widespread belief that any discomfort whatsoever requires an immediate freakout of massive proportions.
LikeLike
Meanwhile, in Israel:
Hebrew University rocked by claims of sexual harassment by 11 lecturers
University says it was unaware of accusations and instigates police investigation, while NGO claims it knew of at least five cases on harassment.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4663660,00.html
It’s like magic. You write about rape and harassment on campus in America, and suddenly we have news regarding the subject too.
LikeLike
I swear that I’m not causing this in any way. I think.
LikeLike
“I don’t believe I will ever be able to blog under my own name because as the standard of living improves and our society grows richer, people tend do find offense in more and more outlandish things.”
Ah, so you are starting to understand certain arrangements.
Here is one entertaining thing I will do in your physical presence: I will pull out my phone, tap a few keys, and pull up a picture of someone I am related to, at which point I will ask you if you notice any resemblance perhaps …
The most obvious question you will want to ask at that point will be the most useless.
You will then understand why these arrangements exist.
All writers have secrets, but some writers have secrets that they can entrust to someone else who also has secrets …
You will also then understand why those arrangements exist.
[go ahead, ask Stephen Fry about the meaning of “42”, I double dare you]
LikeLike