A personal story about sexual harrassment and buried memories.

[MineralMan]

3. I was denied my Masters back in the 1970s.

I had completed all course work with excellent marks from my professors. At that school, there was a written Masters exam, which I wrote, and knew it was more than adequate.

It was failed by the head of the program. I challenged it, and it was reviewed by other graduate professors, who said it was fine.

I discovered sometime later that I had been in a relationship with a fellow student who was a woman who had been approached and sexually harassed several times by the person who was the head of the Master's program. After she told me about what had happened, I advised her to take her complaint to the Dean of Humanities. She did. Nothing was done.

Apparently, the man learned of my advice to her. By then, that relationship was over, but not the blowback from the advice I had given my fellow student.

I dropped the whole thing, since it didn't matter to me if I had my Masters or not. I had no intention of doing anything with it, anyhow.

A very unpleasant situation. That other student went on to get her PhD at another university and is now the head of the department at her current school.

The man who took his revenge? He was successfully sued by another student he had sexually harrassed, was dismissed, and died a couple of years later of alcoholism.

Such situations are all too common, I'm afraid.