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Comment by RcouF1uZ4gsC | Hacker News Reader

"Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" - Lord Acton

The underlying issue is the huge power differential between advisers and students. Whenever there is such a power differential, abuse is almost inevitable.

I fear that unless that power differential gets addressed, any solutions are going to just be superficial band-aids on a festering wound.

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"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power." - David Brin

Being corrupt without power goes unnoticed.

Power corrupts, but more importantly, power reveals.

You can only get a real measure of a man, or woman, when they have power over you.

Eh, I think if you replaced all the people with others, but left the power structure in place, you'd get a similar result. That's why it doesn't just happen at MIT, but at pretty much every university I've heard the inside scoop on.

I disagree. The power differential is not the underlying issue.

Power is certainly a part of it but the underlying issue comes down to oversight + accountability. Both in specific written rules and in general societal norms that influence how those rules are used.

Lack of accountability is part of the power structure. At MIT, if you do something sufficiently nasty as a faculty member to embarrass the Institute, everyone is now pressured into signing NDAs / non-disclosures. If you don't, you're liable to get scapegoated yourself.

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