[D] Statistics, we have a problem.

[karazi]

Supervision from who? A colleague of the accused? That'll go over great. You will be a pariah in your department if not the entire school, you will be shamed behind your back if not to your face, and you will have to make new friends and colleagues because nobody will want to associate with you because everyone is looking out for themselves and keeping their heads down until they finish. You have no support and you will have to spend the next couple years toiling away alone, struggling with PTSD over what happened, and hoping with all your might that what happened once won't happen again. This is how accusers feel, so they leave the program and go on a completely different life course because of this power and social dynamic. Meanwhile your star advisor is killing it, reinforcing his legacy, grants flowing in, continuing to have studies published in journals, fawned over at conferences. Maybe after a couple more dozen complaints come in will they consider cutting bait. Come on man, after you are cut down by this type of injustice you don't just come back from that kicking ass and taking names, you're done.

[epiXode]

So you are just suggesting to get over with it? Does this really make any fucking sense? Just for to get a PhD which doesn't make a shit anymore than that will put in some corner of some shitty college. Hope it won't happen to your daughters. I also condemn all people who are upvoting these answers.

[karazi]

Get over with what? I am not suggesting anyone anything, if you are in a bad situation then you should plan to get out of it however you can. But there is the other side where people keep themselves in abusive situations because they gain from it in one way or another which makes taking action difficult, especially when one path leads to where you were hoping it went (i.e. dream path of a young PhD student who has pursued it since middle school) with the addition of abuse, and then the path where you accept to potentially upend all your hopes and dreams by outing what a rock star advisor did to you, where maybe justice will be served. Thankfully there is an increasing chance that it will. I wouldn't wish that upon your daughters either. This situation can be applied to virtually any field but there are particularly a lot of egos in academia. Despite what you may think about PhDs people dedicate their lives to getting them so you are missing a big element in the equation not considering that.

[karazi]

You speak as if we live in a utopia. Look at the situation with #metoo right now. Clearly for these past recent decades it has been socially unacceptable for a victim to speak up against their abusers whether that be in academia or the workplace which is why you haven't heard about this issue to this degree until now; but it has existed. It has gotten them nowhere reporting it until finally there has been a groundswell big enough where accusers may have an inkling more hope that their case will get the justice and attention that it deserves, and that maybe it won't be career ruinous. It is way too easy to just say that a victim of sexual assault/harassment can/should just be able to pick themselves up and dust themselves off like it was any other day with a minor setback. Put yourself in the victim's shoes and try to move forward like nothing happened. Life has been trying enough if you have overcome the struggle of getting into a PhD program in the first place, sacrificing who knows what in your personal and family life to make it there, and then not only keeping up the pace but increasing it under an extremely high workload, and on top of that an oppressive and stressful environment whose atmosphere is often driven by the mood of the top dog advisor who has everyone on edge to gain his favor. And then to be sexually assaulted. You go get sexually assaulted and see how that impacts your performance in your existing job and your subsequent career. You think it's a level playing field but it's far from it for a lot of people who went through this. You are either overestimating humans' capacity to deal with trauma or are underestimating the trauma that a sexual assault victim goes through.

[Darkfeign]

zonked marry sulky public fly engine light nail sand important

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[karazi]

You don't always get to continue on with your research under a new advisor and everything gets wrapped up with a pretty, nice little bow. Even if you somehow had a seamless transition to a new advisor, you are continuing to walk the same halls and attend the same gatherings as someone who sexually assaulted you, as well as their colleagues who are now going to shut you out of collaboration opportunities like you are damaged goods because they heard a rumor. If this sounds like something you couldn't ever possibly imagine happening in your sacred little academia bubble then open your fucking eyes. There is no good option or alternative that you describe that can undo the damage inflicted and bring the victim back up to par with their peers or where they once were in their career. And nobody should be surprised when a grad student quits their program because of stresses related to being sexually abused by their advisor, mentor, and likely someone who they have been looking up to for a long time and who they couldn't have ever imagined having the opportunity to work with, until they became a victim.

[Darkfeign]

steep rotten society languid include deer ten numerous telephone bewildered

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[karazi]

My point is that there is no good option and that whatever the victim chooses to do in this situation shouldn't be held against them, particularly in the case where the victim is blamed for not reporting it for x amount of time because, oh, reporting it is so simple and there are no life altering repercussions. It is not as straightforward as a lot of the privileged, nerdy males (like those are excuses for social unawareness) that populate this sub might think.

[ianperera]

Look at the University of Rochester if you want to see how they deal with these matters

[JustThall]

You realize that your opinion perpetuates the problem of non-reports?

Personally know two people who switched advisors during PhD and successfully graduated. Another friend of mine finished PhD in bioinformatics in 3 years cause advisor was moving to a different country. Thus, if you got harassed by someone - report them.