Hard data on bullying in academe are scant, especially in comparison to the robust research on the subject within the business world. But anecdotal data suggest bullying by academics is a problem; everyone seems to have a bullying story, or several, and a blog post on faculty jerks from an Australian academic went viral last year. At the same time, administrators’ attempts at making policies about or even encouraging civility are historically controversial. Most recently, Nicholas Dirks, chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley, faced harsh faculty criticism over a memo on the importance of civility.
Office of Strategic Communication