[dissidents]

It may well be true that phishing scams can be easy to fall for, but it is not relevant to this story. Razdan tweeted that she was joining the Harvard's Faculty of Arts & Sciences as an Associate Professor. Regardless of how convincing the phishing attempt was, this is incredibly naive; Razdan does not have a PhD or any publications and Harvard's FAS does not have any professors in journalism.

Edit: https://twitter.com/ruchirsharma_1/status/135006726628985651...

It seems that this may not even have been a phishing attempt.

[pmiller2]

Not to mention that universities typically don't hire people at the associate professor level. The first rank is called "assistant professor," followed by "associate professor," and then "full professor." Associate and full are tenured ranks, which is why there isn't much hiring at that level.

Also, one would expect any open position at a US university to be advertised, most likely in The Chronicle of Higher Education. This is something perhaps only someone who's got a little familiarity with the academic job market may know, so, I suppose one could be forgiven for not knowing it, but I would assume that one would at least google for open positions at Harvard to find out if it really exists.

That said, naïve or not, I also don't think victim blaming is a productive thing to do here. All it does is discourage people from speaking out about their experiences, which means we can't learn from them. It may also discourage people from seeking help when they think they might be getting phished.

[dissidents]

As others have pointed out on Twitter, I am not sure who is the victim here; Nidhi Razdan apparently had multiple speaking engagements where she was introduced as Harvard faculty:

Example: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErxnAc5XEAEkro3?format=jpg&name=...

[pmiller2]

I don’t understand. Are you saying people are claiming she made the whole thing up and was just going around saying she was an associate professor at Harvard?

[alisonkisk]

Yes. That's what the Twitter thread shows.

[asenna]

To be honest, NDTV is one of the top English channels in India and Nidhi Razdan is a very well respected and recognized journalist.

It makes no sense for her to fake all of this for some "clout" as some on twitter suggested - she does not need it. Unfortunately there is a lot of cynicism for anything media (and in turn politics) related in India and people love to speculate.

[CyberRabbi]

What you are suggesting here makes this already interesting story even more interesting. Perhaps there are holes in her story but if she really knowingly faked the whole thing, why would she resign from her job?

[ghaff]

Because she was maybe resigned?

It's possible there's an innocent explanation but Occam's Razor does suggest she just made up her Associate Professor at Harvard title and, when called out for it, concocted a story about it really being Harvard Extension School and phishing. Which was vaguely plausible so long as you don't think too deeply about it and ignore that, if this were the case, the initial Twitter post was deceptive.

[CyberRabbi]

By “resigned” I am assuming you mean she was fired. If she were fired why would her previous employer allow her to use their website to publish this story?

[ghaff]

Who knows? Maybe the Occam's Razor conclusion isn't in fact the right one. Maybe the publication thinks it saves them face as well as her. (Journalists who lie look bad for news publications even if they're fired.)

[alasdair_]

She turned everything over to the police who will presumably investigate. Why do this if she is lying?

[meowster]

Devil's advocate: she claims she turned it over to the police.

[LordAtlas]

This thread says people from industry are sometimes hired without needing Ph.Ds - https://twitter.com/gauravsabnis/status/1350414118986121216

[pmiller2]

Ok? I never said anything about PhDs. What I said was that people typically aren't hired in at the associate level. Those that are would typically be professors who have tenure at another institution, meaning that they're already at the associate level or higher. People who are denied tenure at their current institution and want to continue in academia would apply to an assistant professor job and negotiate a shortened tenure clock, meaning that they would be assessed for tenure in fewer than the standard 6 years that a brand new, never held a professorship of any type assistant professor would have.

Again, this is a lot of esoterica about the academic job market that not many people outside of those circles is going to know, so I don't blame anyone for not knowing it.

[LordAtlas]

Apologies. Meant to reply to someone else who claimed Ph.Ds were a requirement.

[ghaff]

As I responded elsewhere, that's not what she wrote in the post that people are responding to. I would agree that if it were the case that she was offered a full faculty position after a 90 minute remote interview, that wouldn't pass the sniff test. But that's not what she claims in this post. It's very plausible that a working journalist would teach at Harvard Extension School. Though it's at least a bit of a stretch that Harvard would relocate someone from India to do so. And it does seem that her story is changing.

ADDED: And, yes, there seem to be different claims on twitter than what is stated in this post.

[dissidents]

"But that's not what she claims in her post."

I am not sure how much more clear I can be with you. Nidhi Razdan claimed on Twitter that she was joining the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences as an Associate Professor. The Harvard Extension School has absolutely nothing to do with any of this. Here is the original tweet:

https://twitter.com/Nidhi/status/1271705895437651968

[boomboomsubban]

The Harvard Extension School is a program of the Harvard Division of Continuing Education, which is part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

[dissidents]

Again, this is irrelevant. I find it hard to believe how often I have to repeat this. The Harvard Extension School does not hire tenured professors. You do not become a tenured faculty, let alone an associate professor, at Harvard's FAS if you have no research background. The story should fail a minimal scrutiny test from a layperson, let alone a journalist with more than 20 years of experience. This just doesn't add up.

[boomboomsubban]

Why do you repeatedly say "I can't believe I have to repeat this" and then say something you haven't mentioned in this thread?

What an "associate professor" is isn't common knowledge, even for a journalist. It both means something different in Commonwealth countries and the definition of "associate" is "entry level" which doesn't fit either version of an associate professor.

[Aeolun]

> You do not become a tenured faculty, let alone an associate professor, at Harvard's FAS if you have no research background.

This is not something someone without a research background would know.

[ghaff]

I'd absolutely expect an experienced American journalist to have a pretty good idea of how academia operates in the US. I do and I don't have a research background. I have no idea though how things operate in India.

[ghaff]

The title is still fishy though even if she (as a journalist!) took some liberties in implying she was a professor at Harvard University (and what that implies) even though she wasn't. Just as if I said I graduated from Harvard when I got a degree of some sort from HES, that's clearly misleading. If you look through the faculty directory of HES, it doesn't look as if HES generally gives titles; most of the titles given are the faculty's positions at other institutions where applicable. (There are a few Lecturers in Extension.)

[localhost]

Which would have made her an adjunct professor, certainly not an _associate_ professor.

[spoonjim]

You don't need to have a PhD to be a professor in a "creative" field like journalism/art/writing/etc. For example Jamaica Kincaid is a professor at Harvard and if I recall correctly I don't think she even graduated from high school.