In college, I worked under an awful grad student who was extremely unprofessional and inappropriate toward female students and colleagues. The faculty member above him was completely obvious to what was going on. It was such a bad experience, I was miserable and it took me awhile to even come to terms with the whole ordeal and talk about it.

The grad student refused to teach what he was supposed to. He’d cut the lecture short or refuse to do the labs and would spend large chunks of the recitations and lectures telling us irrelevant and sometimes NSFW personal stories. When the students tried to leave after the class ended, he’d scream at them and ask them to stay extra and that the class wasn’t over until he declared it over. He was also a dick and would deduct points from their grades if they had their phone out (they are adults at a university!)

He also wouldn’t help people who came to office hours unless they were already passing the class. When I offered to help them, he grew furious and said “They’re failing! I bet they’ll flunk the next test no matter what they do to prepare!”

He especially hated women. He would belittle other female grad students and event post docs and adjunct lecturers. He always had to be “right”, they were wrong and he always got the last word. He’d take their work from them or tell them he should be the one doing it.

He then started making me stay after lecturers to have one-on-ones with him where he would get uncomfortably close and ask me really inappropriate questions about my personal life.

Long story short, I brought it up with the faculty member. He sent a colleague in to help supervise and do performance evals. Things changed pretty quickly. I finished with the highest ratings possible and got a glowing review. The grad student wouldn’t talk to me anymore and was no longer allowed to meet with me one-on-one or do evals without someone else present.