Types of Academic Abuse
Glossary
For students, faculty, staff, and anyone navigating the power structures of higher education.
Academic Bullying
Persistent mistreatment or intimidation by faculty, supervisors, or peers aimed at undermining your confidence, credibility, or academic progress.
Biased Letters of Recommendation
References that subtly or overtly diminish your achievements based on personal bias. Often coded with negative language, lukewarm praise, or omissions that sabotage opportunities.
Discrimination
Unequal treatment based on race, gender, disability, age, sexuality, or other protected categories. Can affect hiring, grading, advancement, and access to opportunities.
Grooming and Coercion
A calculated process where someone in power builds trust to erode boundaries, often framing exploitation as mentorship or opportunity. Coercion follows as pressure, threats, or manipulation force the target into silence or compliance.
Intellectual Property Theft (Plagiarism)
Retaliation
Sexual Harassment
Using someone else's work, ideas, or words without proper credit - whether copied directly or repackaged as one's own. In academic settings, it often occurs when faculty exploit student labor, research, or creative output.
Any punishment - formal or informal - taken in response to someone filing a complaint, reporting misconduct, or asserting their rights. Often leads to isolation, poor evaluation, or job loss.
Unwanted sexual attention, pressure, or behavior - especially when there is a power imbalance. Can some from colleagues, supervisors, professors, or administrators.