Harmful Effects of Bullying in Academia for Schools and Students
Bullying in academia is a growing concern that has received increased attention in recent years. No, we are not talking about professors bullying students or exploiting the labor of their graduate students for little or no financial (or authorial) reward…that is old news and a topic worthy of discussion in a future article. For our purposes, we are talking about bullying that occurs among the professionals working within the institutions.
Administrators, staff, and faculty interactions can be strained when one group perceives the other to be in a position of weakness and the other exploits that weakness for their gain. In fact, it could reasonably be argued that bullying among professionals in academia begins when they are socialized into a life of bullying through their educational experience. Doctoral programs are notoriously toxic wastelands where even the brightest and most promising of thought experimenter can be withered into non-existence by professor(s) in their department who — for one reason or another — make assumptions about the limited potential of a student that then becomes their reality. It makes sense to assume that academics carry the scars of pursuing a terminal degree with them as they progress beyond the walls of their doctoral program and into the academic departments across the country.
