Retrospective: Faculty in Hot Water

In light of the Venezuelan President's recent threat of legal action against a Harvard professor, here's a trip down the Harvard Faculty's extensive memory lane of lawsuits, threats, and accusations.

1849: A janitor, driven by curiosity, breaks through five layers of brick and finds the ghastly contents of a furnace. Inside: remains of a human thigh, pelvis, and shin.

The body parts—those of a missing man later identified as Harvard professor George Parkman, Class of 1809—formed the basis for the case against the only Harvard professor ever convicted of murder: Dr. John W. Webster, Class of 1811, a prominent chemistry professor at the Medical School.

The motive, it seems, was money. Webster owed Parkman, the victim, a loan of $2,432, a large sum, considering Webster's income was only $1,200 per year. Webster later confessed to killing Parkman in a fit of anger.

The case attracted much attention, and a later Crimson piece retroactively labeled it "the 19th Century's O.J. Simpson Case." On Aug. 30, 1850, in front of a crowd of thousands, Webster was hanged for the murder of George Parkman.

1916: Hugo Münsterberg, a professor of psychology, was an eminent supporter of German policies during World War I. In response to the accusations, then-Harvard president A. Lawrence Lowell wrote of “maintaining the principle of academic freedom, which has been severely strained by the present war.”

1983: Jorge I. Dominguez, Harvard's senior authority on Latin American political science, was stripped of his post for allegedly sexually harassing an assistant professor.

In response, the Government faculty unanimously adopted a resolution deploring sexual harassment. Dominguez did not attend the meeting, and some department members considered “proposing that Dominguez be forbidden from attending faculty meetings in the future."

1985: Nadav Safran, director of Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies, told The Crimson's executive editor—three times—"I will kick your butt," one Thursday night. The Crimson filed a formal protest. No word as to whether Safran fulfilled his promise.

2005: A rising Economics professor, Andrei C. Shleifer ’82, was charged with “conspiring to defraud” the U.S. government after it was discovered that he invested in the Russian economy while simultaneously advising it.

In the 1990s, Shleifer led a failed Harvard economic advisory program to Russia that became embroiled in corruption. Ultimately, the U.S. government settled with Harvard for $26.5 million and with Shleifer for $2 million.

2008: Melvin D. Levine, a former Harvard Medical School professor, was accused of sexually abusing at least seven boys in his care.

Levine took his own life in 2011, the day after a class-action sexual abuse suit was filed against him in Boston. The lawsuit charged that Levine performed unnecessary genital exams on 40 boys while at Children's Hospital Boston.

2008: A professor was sued for a study he led on padded underwear meant to protect the elderly from hip fractures. The study concluded that hip protectors are not effective in preventing hip fractures. HipSaver, a hip protector manufacturer, alleged that the claim was damaging to its product. The lawsuit was dismissed.

2014: Liberation Music sued law professor Lawrence Lessig for using one of their songs as the backing track to a video. Unfortunately for Liberation Music, Lessig was, according to Flyby records, "kind of a big deal, especially when it comes to Copyright Law." Lessig countersued, won a settlement, then donated the money to open access.