ABSTRACT
The issue of sexual harassment lays bare all of higher education's contradictions and weaknesses. It demonstrates that many of the people who claim to know so much about the past, present, and even the future have limited objective grasp of the multifaceted cultures in which they work. It reveals that not all academicians are as rational and high-minded as they claim to be. The 1994 case of Silva v. University of New Hampshire provides an example of the need to recognize that professional responsibility, as well as gender, informs the sexual harassment dynamic on campus. Much of the pontificating about First Amendment rights and academic freedom is really a way of arguing that one's own tastes and habits take precedence over professional responsibility. Despite the ambiguous or unknowable elements of the case, it is indisputable that the university was long cognizant of Gallop's personal and professional behavior and philosophy.
