This article was last updated on 1/10/2018 at 7:15 p.m. with developments from the University of North Alabama and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
The galvanizing momentum of the #metoo campaign has forced many industries to confront widespread sexual harassment and assault in their midsts. Academe is no exception.
Propelled by admiration for those who have spoken out, fear that what happened to them could happen to others, and anger at how long abusers have gone unpunished, women have come forward in droves to report instances of sexual assault by filing lawsuits, speaking with reporters, and posting their accounts online, often using the popular hashtag. (Some men have also used the hashtag to share stories of harassment and abuse.)
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This article was last updated on 1/10/2018 at 7:15 p.m. with developments from the University of North Alabama and the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
The galvanizing momentum of the #metoo campaign has forced many industries to confront widespread sexual harassment and assault in their midsts. Academe is no exception.
Propelled by admiration for those who have spoken out, fear that what happened to them could happen to others, and anger at how long abusers have gone unpunished, women have come forward in droves to report instances of sexual assault by filing lawsuits, speaking with reporters, and posting their accounts online, often using the popular hashtag. (Some men have also used the hashtag to share stories of harassment and abuse.)
Higher education had already had moments of confrontation with harassment, assault, and the cultural and structural forces that underlie them. Women have described the cultures in some disciplines, including philosophy and astronomy, as corrosive and hostile. Campus officials have struggled to determine how to punish abusive employees — and how to avoid simply passing them on to other universities. Scholarly societies have taken a more vigilant approach to conferences that have long been seen as incubators for misconduct.
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But the new wave of revelations and accusations has raised the stakes, and the fury the #metoo movement has tapped into could have a longstanding impact on higher education. Here is a running guide to some of the cases that have emerged since mid-October:
January 10, 2018
Accused former University of North Alabama professor seeks $7 million in claim.
David Dickerson, a former University of North Alabama professor, has filed a claim against the university for more than $7 million, saying it denied him due process and slandered him in the media, reports WHNT-TV in Huntsville, Ala. The claim, filed with the Alabama State Board of Adjustment, follows Mr. Dickerson’s dismissal from the university after an internal investigation and a federal Title IX lawsuit filed in August. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of an unnamed student, accuses the university of covering up Mr. Dickerson’s sexual assault of her on a university trip in November 2015.
Forty reports have been filed over four years at University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
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In the past four years, the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee has received 40 reports of sexual assault or harassment against 37 professors and staff members, Media Milwaukee reports. The university determined that 11 reports were violations, according to a statement published by Fox 6. Media Milwaukee later found that the University of Wisconsin system had a record of only one sexual-harassment complaint against faculty or staff members from the Milwaukee campus in the last 20 years.
A University of Hawaii survey reveals the extent of sexual harassment there.
A new survey at the University of Hawaii found that about 9 percent of students from across all 10 campuses reported being sexually harassed on or off campus, according to the Associated Press. The survey also found that 6 percent of students reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact on or off campus, and nearly one in five students had experienced intimate-partner violence.
January 3, 2018
Prominent photography professor is accused of sexual misconduct.
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Five women told The New York Times that Thomas Roma, a photography professor at Columbia University’s School of the Arts, engaged in sexually abusive or inappropriate behavior while they were his students, in the 1990s. One women said he placed his penis in her mouth in his office at Columbia; others said he touched them inappropriately. Some of the women were students in the School of Visual Arts, another institution in New York City where Mr. Roma taught. The women told the Times that he reminded them often of his professional prominence. One woman said she had thought she would “have to go along with it or it would be detrimental.” Mr. Roma on Thursday retired from Columbia, a university spokesman told The Chronicle.
Through a lawyer, Mr. Roma told the Times that his behavior was not coercive and that the women’s statements had inaccuracies. Mr. Roma cooperated when a complaint was filed against him by one woman, the lawyer said, and the other four women “have taken isolated, innocent incidents, none of them predatory, and have created fictitious versions of reality that are libelous.”
University of Arizona’s football coach is fired.
ESPN reports that the University of Arizona fired its football team’s coach, Rich Rodriguez, who had been accused of sexual harassment. An investigation into the allegation could not be substantiated, ESPN reports. But before and during the investigation, the university became concerned about the climate of the football program, according to a letter from the athletic director and the president. Mr. Rodriguez said in a statement to ESPN that he denied the allegations of sexual harassment and had cooperated with the investigation. On Wednesday the Tucson Weekly reported that Mr. Rodriguez’s accuser had filed a $7.5-million claim against the coach, saying he had made unwanted sexual advances toward her.
News on other campuses.
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The San Francisco Chronicle reports that a University of California regent, Norm Pattiz, resigned, effective in February. A recording of Mr. Pattiz asking an actress at his podcast company if he could hold her breasts surfaced in 2016, but the incident was not mentioned in his resignation letter.
The Austin American-Statesman reports that two University of Texas faculty members, who left the institution in 2014 and 2016, respectively, did so after sexual-misconduct allegations were made against them.
December 13, 2017
University of California at Davis strips emeritus professor of title after rape allegation.
Danny Gray, director of academic employment and labor relations at the University of California at Davis has published a statement saying that, in the late 1980s, when he was an undergraduate there, D. Kern Holoman, now an emeritus professor of music, harassed and raped him.
Mr. Holoman has now been stripped of his emeritus title and distinguished-professor status, according to a letter signed by Philip H. Kass, vice provost for academic affairs, and posted by The Davis Enterprise. The letter says that Mr. Holoman will no longer be employed by the university or be able to participate in teaching, governance, or scholarly activities, but that he will be able to finish current projects.
According to the newspaper, Mr. Holoman denied the allegations but, through his lawyer, apologized for harming Mr. Gray. “Our memories of that time differ,” Mr. Holoman said. He signed the letter, but admitted to no wrongdoing.
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Gary S. May, chancellor of UC-Davis, said on Monday in a written statement that he had no doubt that the university community includes both survivors and abusers. “These stories are heartbreaking,” he said. “Abusive behavior is unacceptable.”
Allegations of sexual misconduct on other campuses.
Matt Manweller, who is both a political-science professor at Central Washington University and a Washington state legislator, is under investigation for “inappropriate conduct,” The Seattle Times reported. The university has placed him on administrative paid leave. He has denied the allegations. Our Julia Martinez has more.
An adjunct professor of creative writing at Columbia College Chicago was accused of sexual misconduct in a Title IX complaint filed last month, The Columbia Chronicle reported. The college told the newspaper it was looking into the allegations, which concern a 2015 incident. The adjunct, who has not taught at Columbia since 2016, declined to comment to the newspaper but said he looked forward to when “I can speak publicly about these allegations.”
December 8, 2017
Sexual-harassment lawsuit is filed against University of California at San Francisco.
A postdoctoral-research fellow at the University of California at San Francisco filed a lawsuit saying Stanton A. Glantz, a professor of medicine at the university, had sexually harassed her, BuzzFeed News reports. The postdoc, Eunice Neeley, said she had filed a complaint with the university after Mr. Glantz stared at her chest, asked her to give him multiple hugs, and subjected her and others to “racially insensitive behavior.” Ms. Neeley said that when she reported the alleged harassment, nothing was immediately done to protect her. In addition to Mr. Glantz, she named the university’s Board of Regents among the defendants. In a blog post, Mr. Glantz, a well-known tobacco researcher, denied the allegations and said that he had been cooperating with a university investigation.
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Professors write to chair of Stanford University’s English department.
In an open letter to Alex Woloch, chair of Stanford University’s English department, dozens of professors say they hope his university and department “will lead the way toward a more open conversation about sexual harassment in academia.” The signers of the letter were colleagues of Seo-Young Chu, an associate professor of English at Queens College of the City University of New York, who recently wrote in Entropy magazine about being raped and abused by Jay Fliegelman, a Stanford professor who died in 2007.
“In the course of our careers, we all become indebted to people and institutions that have done real harm to others if not to us,” says the letter, which was published in Stanford’s student newspaper. “Those debts produce a gratitude that is entwined with deep discomfort, so it is with self-interest as well as ethical and political purpose that we are eager to see the English department declare its solidarity with Seo-Young Chu.”
Allegations of sexual harassment on other campuses.
A professor at Oregon State University is appealing his termination to the university’s Board of Trustees, reports The Oregonian. In May, A. Morrie Craig, a toxicology professor, was accused of “bullying and engaging in sexual harassment,” and a faculty committee recommended his firing in October, according to the newspaper.
The New York Times reports that six former students at Columbia University have agreed to be witnesses in support of a lawsuit that accuses William V. Harris, a professor of history, of sexual harassment. The lawsuit was filed anonymously in October, and four of the new witnesses remain anonymous, but two, both professors, have accused Mr. Harris publicly. Professor Harris did not respond to the Times’s request for comment.
December 3, 2017
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Professor at UC-Santa Cruz disputes sexual-assault accusations.
Seven people have contributed to an anonymous statement containing sexual-harassment and sexual-assault accusations against Gopal Balakrishnan, a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Mr. Balakrishnan denies the allegations, saying they amount to gossip that his university already decided not to investigate.
The university told our Katie Mangan that if the claims were true, they would be “a serious violation of campus policy.” Campus officials indicated they were willing to take another look at the complaints.
December 1, 2017
UVa professor accused of sexual harassment will not teach in the spring.
John Casey, a University of Virginia professor who is the subject of at least three Title IX complaints, will not teach in the Spring 2018 semester, the university said on Thursday. Our Nell Gluckman has the story.
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“Petted and touched” by a philosophy professor.
Elisabeth A. Lloyd, a professor of the history and philosophy of science at Indiana University at Bloomington, spoke to the philosophy podcast Sci Phi about her experience as a graduate student in philosophy at Princeton University. She described being “petted and touched” every day by Paul Benacerraf, now an emeritus professor of philosophy, the blog Daily Nous reported. “It was just an extra price I had to pay, that the men did not have to pay, in order to get my Ph.D.,” Ms. Lloyd said.
In an email to The Chronicle, Mr. Benacerraf said he was “genuinely puzzled” by the accusations and does not know what prompted them. “I am not the sort of person that she describes in her interview,” he said. “Yet I do not doubt her sincerity or the depth of the feelings that she reports,” he added.
More reverberations of sexual-misconduct allegations at colleges.
At Northeastern University, students have started a campaign they are calling “Neu Too.” The campaign’s organizers posted fliers around the Boston campus with quotations from students who have experienced sexual assault or harassment. The campaign has also created a website where students can submit their own stories anonymously.
An agriculture professor at the University of Kentucky has resigned after sexual-misconduct allegations were brought against him, the Kentucky Kernel reported. The student newspaper reported that the professor had had a sexual relationship with a student that was not reported to his dean or the chair of his department.
November 22, 2017
Former sports doctor at Michigan State University pleads guilty to sexual assault.
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Larry Nassar, who had been a doctor at Michigan State University and for the United States gymnastics team, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to seven counts of sexual assault, The New York Times reported. More than 130 women and girls, including many gymnasts, have accused him of abusive sexual behavior. Meanwhile, the first phase of a review of Michigan State’s Title IX policies and procedures was published on Monday, The State News reported. The law firm Husch Blackwell found the university compliant with the federal gender-equity law and its regulations.
Title IX complaints are filed against University of Virginia creative-writing professor.
A graduate of the University of Virginia’s M.F.A. program filed a complaint this month with the university’s Title IX office against John Casey, a professor and award-winning author, our Katherine Mangan reported. Emma C. Eisenberg, a writer, said in her complaint that Mr. Casey “repeatedly touched me and other M.F.A. fiction female students at departmental social functions on our shoulders, lower backs, and butts, as well as making routine comments on our appearance.” A second former M.F.A. student at UVa has filed a similar complaint against Mr. Casey, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
November 20, 2017
Dartmouth College students speak about sexual-harassment allegations.
Fifteen graduate students, undergraduates, and postdoctoral fellows at Dartmouth College said on Saturday in a statement to The Dartmouth, the campus newspaper, that three professors in the department of psychological and brain sciences had “created a hostile academic environment in which sexual harassment is normalized.” Their statement followed reports in late October that New Hampshire’s attorney general was investigating allegations of “sexual misconduct” against the professors — Todd Heatherton, Bill Kelley, and Paul Whalen.
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The students submitted their statement to The Dartmouth anonymously. They said they had also submitted statements to the college’s external investigator. Some of the students who spoke to The Dartmouth described being pressured to drink at social events with the professors. In one case, one of the professors slid his hand down a female student’s back, making her feel uncomfortable. The Dartmouth reported that other professors had spoken with Dartmouth’s external investigator since learning of the allegations.
Reports of sexism in a University of Wisconsin at Madison department.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported over the weekend that a faculty review committee released a report in February that found that the university’s urban-planning department had a “legacy of sexism.” The university commissioned a consultant to investigate those claims, and the result was a July report stating that 10 of the 13 women interviewed had personally experienced or seen sexual harassment.
November 17, 2017
Boston University finds tenured professor sexually harassed a graduate student and may be fired.
Boston University officials announced on Friday that a 13-month investigation had concluded that a tenured professor in the department of earth and environment sexually harassed a graduate student during a 1999-2000 research trip to Antarctica.
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The professor, David R. Marchant, has been put on paid administrative leave and will not be on the campus.
He has the opportunity to appeal, but if an appeal is unsuccessful, the university will take steps to terminate his faculty appointment, according to a letter sent to the faculty of his department by the university’s provost and chief academic officer, Jean Morrison.
Mr. Marchant was found responsible for making “derogatory, sex-based slurs and sexual comments” at Jane Willenbring, who participated in research trips to Antarctica with Mr. Marchant in 1999-2000 and 2000-1.
Mr. Marchant did not respond to a request for comment. Ms. Willenbring wrote in an email that she was “pleased that the truth of many women’s experiences was heard and believed.”
Even though the university did not find convincing evidence of all of her accusations, including those involving physical abuse, the decision to hold Mr. Marchant responsible for sexual harassment showed the university was committed to students’ well-being, she wrote.
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Ms. Willenbring, now an associate professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, described how Mr. Marchant had treated her in Science last month.
The women said they had waited until their careers were launched before speaking out because they feared retaliation.
The university’s Office of Equal Opportunity, which conducted the investigation, based its findings on interviews with or statements from more than 30 witnesses and after reviewing more than 1,000 pages of records provided by Mr. Marchant, Ms. Willenbring, and others.
The harassment complaint was the subject a congressional investigation by the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, the provost noted.
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“The investigators did not find credible evidence to support Dr. Willenbring’s remaining claims regarding Professor Marchant’s behavior, which included allegations of direct physical attacks, and other types of psychological and physical abuse,” the letter said.
But the sexual harassment she suffered was “sufficiently severe and pervasive so as to create a hostile learning and living environment for Dr. Willenbring at the camp in Antarctica.”
Professors pressure University of Rochester.
Hundreds of faculty members at colleges and universities across the country and abroad have signed an open letter condemning the University of Rochester for what they say is its lack of response to claims of predatory and manipulative behavior by T. Florian Jaeger, a professor of brain and cognitive sciences. The letter says that its signers “cannot in good conscience encourage our students to pursue educational or employment opportunities at the University of Rochester.”
The letter followed a complaint, filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that alleged that at least 11 graduate and postdoctoral students had lost training and educational opportunities because of Mr. Jaeger’s “constant sexual innuendos, pressure to sleep with students, power plays, and other unprofessional behavior.”
Two more allegations are made against a former Stanford University professor.
Jane Penner was a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania in 1985, when she attended the School of Criticism and Theory, a summer seminar at Dartmouth College. She hosted a party one night that Mr. Moretti, now an emeritus professor of humanities at Stanford University, attended. Ms. Penner told The Stanford Daily that Mr. Moretti had lingered after other guests left and made “sexual advances on her,” which eventually became “physically aggressive.” Pretending it was a game, he chased her around the house until she let her dog loose and he finally left, she said.
The Stanford Daily also reported that a professor at the Johns Hopkins University said that a graduate student had accused Mr. Moretti of touching her inappropriately while he was on the Baltimore campus to give a talk in 1997. The former student declined to comment to the newspaper. Mr. Moretti has said he never sexually assaulted anyone.
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November 14, 2017
Student outcry over assault and harassment at the Berklee College of Music drives officials to promise changes.
In the past 13 years, 11 faculty members have been fired from Berklee College of Music for sexual misconduct, the president, Roger H. Brown, said on Monday. The revelation came after a report in The Boston Globe last week that described a pattern of accused professors being allowed to quietly leave the institution while students were silenced with gag orders.
Hundreds of students responded by protesting the college’s inaction on Monday; thousands more signed a petition calling on the institution to address the issue. At a three-hour long meeting with students at the Berklee Performance Center, Mr. Brown apologized to students and promised to change the way the college deals with sexual abuse on campus, The Globe reported.Among the pledges made by Mr. Brown: to create a working group dedicated to preventing harassment and assault, and to add resources to the college’s counseling center.
A Boston University professor is under investigation for accusations of sexual harassment and assault in Antarctica.
Two former graduate students filed complaints against David R. Marchant, director of the Antarctic Research Group at Boston University, including a litany of acts of abuse and sexual harassment they say the professor committed during decades of work in the field. One of the complainants, Jane Willenbring, is now an associate professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego; she told Science last month that she felt comfortable filing a Title IX complaint only after she received tenure, in 2016.
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Science reported that Boston University is investigating the case and has received numerous documents, including “at least five” letters of support of Ms. Willenbring and “a 200-page rebuttal” from Mr. Marchant.
On other campuses, other cases.
A San Jose State University professor found responsible for sexually harassing a student in a 2015 university investigation resigned in October, the Spartan Daily reported. Lewis Aptekar had remained the head of the College of Education’s counselor-education department for almost five months after that investigation wrapped up, according to The Mercury News. His resignation was among the terms of a settlement reached after he sued the university for violating his privacy.
Lehigh University has placed a professor on leave while it investigates “allegations of sexual and other inappropriate conduct” against that faculty member, according to a message from the provost reported in The Morning Call.
November 12, 2017
Three Dartmouth College psychology professors are under investigation.
Last month, when posters appeared on Dartmouth’s campus calling attention to the disappearance of two psychology professors, student reporters started asking questions. Few details have emerged, but it is now clear that not two, but three Dartmouth psychology professors have been put on leave and are being investigated by the university and New Hampshire’s attorney general for alleged “sexual misconduct.” The professors are Todd Heatherton, Bill Kelley, and Paul Whalen.
In an article about the investigation, The New York Times noted that Mr. Heatherton and Mr. Kelley had conducted research in 2012 on eating habits and sexual behavior that involved 58 freshmen women. But Dartmouth’s president, Philip J. Hanlon, said the college’s investigation does not involve the professors’ research, according to the Valley News.
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Two former graduate students say they were raped by two former Stanford University professors.
In an essay in Entropy, Seo-Young Chu, an associate professor of English at Queens College of the City University of New York, wrote that in 2000 she was raped by Jay Fliegelman, a scholar of American literature and culture studies. (Mr. Fliegelman died in 2007.) Ms. Chu said she decided to publicly accuse Mr. Fliegelman after a scholarly society named a mentorship award in his honor — a decision it reversed after hearing her story.
A few days later, Kimberly S. Latta wrote on Facebook that Franco Moretti, now an emeritus humanities professor, had “sexually stalked, pressured, and raped” her in the mid-1980s when he was a visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, where she was a graduate student. Ms. Latta spoke to The Chronicle’s Katie Mangan, who wrote this report. Mr. Moretti said that he and Ms. Latta had “consensual” sex and that he was “horrified by the accusation” of rape.
More universities have been prompted to answer questions about alleged misconduct by professors.
Oxford University announced last week that Tariq Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies, had taken a leave of absence “by mutual agreement.” Multiple women have accused Mr. Ramadan of rape or sexual misconduct. He denies the charges, The Economist reported, and has called them part of “a campaign of slander.”
William V. Harris, a professor of history at Columbia University, withdrew from teaching and other student-related activities after being accused of sexually harassing a graduate student, according to lawyers representing the student. A lawsuit was filed against Mr. Harris and the university a few days before the news broke about Mr. Weinstein. The university announced at the end of October that Mr. Harris had withdrawn from teaching.
The Boston Globe reported last week on allegations of sexual misconduct at the Berklee College of Music, identifying “a culture of blatant sexual harassment” and stating that three professors had been “allowed to quietly leave since 2008, after students reported being assaulted, groped, or pressured into sex with their teachers.” After college leaders responded by saying that the college has acted “swiftly and decisively” to remove predatory professors, students protested what they considered an inadequate response, according to Think Progress.
The Huffington Post reported last week that Princeton University had given only a minor punishment to Sergio Verdú, an engineering professor who had been found responsible this year for sexually harassing a graduate student. Mr. Verdú was not suspended. He was required to take eight hours of training, the student told HuffPost.
Signs naming students accused of sexual assault have stoked debate at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges.
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Tensions over sexual assault have swirled for years at Morehouse, a historically black men’s college, and Spelman, a historically black women’s college seen as Morehouse’s sister school. This month they were revived when a campaign of signs on both campuses listed the names of male Morehouse students and accused them of rape. On the Twitter hashtag #WeKnowWhatYouDid, students and graduates shared stories of assault and took administrators to task; others argued that the tactic of naming students was potentially defamatory. Morehouse’s president, Harold L. Martin Jr., said in response to the outrage that he had read “every single tweet.”
Liberty University’s leader weighed in on accusations of assault by a prospective U.S. senator.
Five women have now publicly accused Roy Moore, the twice-removed Alabama Supreme Court judge who is now a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, of either molesting them or pursuing a romantic relationship with them when they were teenagers. Mr. Moore is an evangelical Christian, and the accusations have prompted members of the evangelical community to choose between defending the candidate and deploring him.
The leader of the most prominent evangelical institution in the U.S. was quick to pick a side. Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, shared his thoughts with Religion News Service the day after The Washington Post reported on the first accusations against Mr. Moore. “It comes down to a question who is more credible in the eyes of the voters — the candidate or the accuser,” said Mr. Falwell, who endorsed Mr. Moore and has been a vociferous supporter of President Trump. Mr. Falwell went on to tell the news service that “I believe the judge is telling the truth.”
Editor’s Note (12/14/2017, 2:20 p.m.): This article has been updated to remove an item that does not meet The Chronicle’s standard of evidence for publication.
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Nell Gluckman writes about faculty issues and other topics in higher education. You can follow her on Twitter @nellgluckman, or email her at nell.gluckman@chronicle.com. Brock Read is assistant managing editor for daily news at The Chronicle. He directs a team of editors and reporters who cover policy, research, labor, and academic trends, among other things. Follow him on Twitter @bhread, or drop him a line at brock.read@chronicle.com. Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, and job training, as well as other topics in daily news. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.
Nell Gluckman is a senior reporter who writes about research, ethics, funding issues, affirmative action, and other higher-education topics. You can follow her on Twitter @nellgluckman, or email her at nell.gluckman@chronicle.com.
As editor of The Chronicle, Brock Read directs a team of editors and reporters who provide breaking coverage and expert analysis of higher-education news and trends.
Katherine Mangan writes about community colleges, completion efforts, student success, and job training, as well as free speech and other topics in daily news. Follow her @KatherineMangan, or email her at katherine.mangan@chronicle.com.