Opinion | Academe Is a Hotbed of Craven Snitches

2 min read Original article ↗
Illustration showing a flock of birds in a tree snitching and gossiping above a woman covering her ears.

Why Are Scholars Such Snitches?

The university bureaucracy has been hijacked for political grudge matches and personal vendettas.

The Review | Essay

When I read about the downfall of the University of Michigan’s president, Mark Schlissel, fired after an anonymous complaint about his consensual though “inappropriate” relationship with a subordinate, my first thought was “What kind of idiot uses his work email for an affair?” Then I recalled that I myself am the kind of idiot who persists in using my university email account for everything, despite pledging at least once a year to tear myself away from this self-destructive habit. Schlissel, c’est moi.

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A version of this article appeared in the April 1, 2022, issue.

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About the Author

Laura Kipnis is the author, most recently, of Love in the Time of Contagion: A Diagnosis. Her previous book was Unwanted Advances: Sexual Paranoia Comes to Campus.