What's Up With Professors in Cambridge?

In just the past week we have seen rather strange behavior in Professors at those institutions in Cambridge.

1. The Economist: We by now all know who this is, the MIT Economist who assisted with the ACA. This is the rather arrogant, in my opinion, fellow who says we are all stupid and that he has some extreme level of wisdom we should all align with.

2. The Business School Guy: The Telegraph reports on some HBS who is threatening a poor little Chinese restaurant over a $4 error in a bill. Frankly I most likely would never see the problem but he clearly wants to make this a Federal, or Commonwealth, matter. At what point do we understand proportionality? Are not these Professors to be examples?

3. The Physicist: Then there is the MIT Professor Emeritus who allegedly was harassing some female in his on line MOOC course. Now he is close to 80 and been retired for a while yet as a result of this claim he has lost all ties to MIT.

Character counts, and character means being seen by both your peers and by society in general as representative of your institution. The Physicist was defrocked totally. The Economist seems to be extolled for his work, and the Business Professor is a work in progress.

There once was a time that your behavior reflected on your institution and if it did so poorly then you suffered consequences, in an equitable manner. It is a shame that such is no longer the case. Some of these are still to be played out so it is worth watching.

UPDATE: That Business School Guy has placed the following on his web site:
 
Many people have seen my emails with .... restaurant in ....Having reflected on my interaction with ..., including what I said and how I said it, it's clear that I was very much out of line. I aspire to act with great respect and humility in dealing with others, no matter what the situation. Clearly I failed to do so. I am sorry, and I intend to do better in the future. I have reached out to ... and will apologize to him personally as well.

I guess someone got to the teacher. Either that or perhaps those possible consulting contracts with possibly China were all cancelled, at least that is what it seems to me in my opinion.