{"id":2793,"date":"2025-10-18T09:19:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T08:19:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2793"},"modified":"2025-10-18T09:55:56","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T08:55:56","slug":"this-is-the-real-cambridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=2793","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;&#8230; this is the Real Cambridge&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-embed-handler wp-block-embed-embed-handler wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Introducing the University of Cambridge Dignity at Work Policy\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pizOGdQK4tE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Too often, the voices of those who have suffered bullying in Universities go unheard. Their pain is hidden behind a culture of fear and silence. Their experiences are dismissed by the very systems and people who are meant to protect them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 21 Group has published the experiences of victims in UK universities before, including <a href=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1117\" title=\"The Bullying of Hannelore\">The Bullying of Hannelore<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1371\" title=\"\">Lined up Against the Wall and Shot<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?p=1868\" title=\"Misogynistic Bulling in the Research Centre\">Misogynistic Bullying in the Research Centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, the 21 Group is publishing extracts from the diary of an academic and victim. The material is distressing and contains expressions of intent to self-harm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All victims of bullying need to take care to preserve their mental health.  If you are being bullied, resilience and coping mechanisms are important. Professional counselling can be an effective way of alleviating stress and anxiety. Please consult our pages on&nbsp;mental health <a href=\"https:\/\/21percent.org\/?page_id=260\" title=\"here\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 21 Group thanks our contributor for speaking out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are always interested in publishing the experiences of bullied victims in Universities. We need to hear these voices. We need &#8220;to break the silence&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please use <a href=\"mailto:contact@21percent.org\">contact@21percent.org<\/a> to tell us your story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">Day +246<br>--------<br><br>I live a double life. On the surface, I get on the podium and try to <br>enthuse young students about their futures, make jokes, pump up the <br>crowd. Afterwards I will make polite conversation and compliments. They <br>made the right decision to come here, and one day, maybe, they will be <br>just like me.<br><br>And then two hours later, perhaps I'll kill myself.<br><br>It wasn't always this way. But after a year of bullying, every day is <br>one more final letter drafted, one more object given away, one more <br>trial run.<br><br>If I leave at 9.20am, can still arrive on time.<br><br>Another successful class.<br><br>Now what do I want to communicate, to the people I work with?<br><br>I think first of all, that in this whole experience, it is difficult to <br>under-estimate the extent to which it makes you feel devalued, <br>demotivated, and frankly abused. What hurts is that we were all-in - we <br>believed in Cambridge and we loved our jobs and our students and worked <br>evenings and weekends to deliver.<br><br>We really threw everything in.<br><br>So that is a lot of the pain every day, the feeling that you've been <br>deliberately undermined, out of spite, and then just having to keep on <br>going day in, day out, carrying that pain with you knowing there's no <br>accountability and no exit.<br><br>It is not just that the only exit they were prepared to offer was <br>annihilation, so much as the number of people aware who were absolutely <br>fine with this outcome.<br><br>So ok, keeping it together, well. I'd want to say that I feel afraid <br>every time I cross the floor that I'll encounter ______, not knowing <br>what will be said or hinted at, an evocation of some new strategy to <br>undermine me, because there have been so many of those in the past. But <br>if they change tune and start to play nice, that's just as bad, because <br>it is so sickening - it is so sickening and disingenuous for someone to <br>smile that hollow smile and between gritted teeth ask you in a <br>saccharine voice how you are feeling, when you both know that this <br>person has done more to push you towards death than any other person you <br>have known.<br><br>What I want to say - why does nobody intervene? Why did HR do nothing <br>when I reported it? Why didn't the people who were bullied and <br>obstructed before, then left the department, why didn't they try to <br>change something?<br><br>Why does the School do nothing when they know they have this going on? <br>Why did _______ never reply my final call for help? <br><br>Why is _______ permitted to engage in institutionalised bullying, <br>and make vexatious threats against the staff; why are they not <br>held accountable to the university's own rules?<br><br>Why do I have to carry this burden alone? Why does no-one reply?<br><br>Why does no-one ever take an interest, ask what is happening?<br><br>That is why I feel like if I die then at least then, and I suppose only <br>then, the lid gets blown wide open. For the first time I'll actually be <br>heard, for the first time people will ask questions, and through these <br>diaries, they'll get the answers they are looking for. I know it will <br>shock people and I'm sorry that it will hurt people. But I also know it <br>is the only means of ensuring accountability and justice.<br><br>Have done the last seminar, it is now 7.07pm and on the train. Head is <br>just white noise.<br><br>Tomorrow I realise I have to perform well, who knows who will be there <br>in the audience. Do you appear wounded and bullied, or do you aim for <br>transparent competence? I think the latter is where you pitch: I think <br>you always have to do your best to be neutral, professional, no matter <br>what kind of contorted mess is going on inside.<br><br>I suppose until I communicated it directly that is why no-one knew this <br>was my situation, I guess people just assumed from the outside that you <br>are strong or tough or resilient, or judge that if you are not this will <br>make you so. But then I did and it made no difference, people just said, <br>well, it is a rite of passage at the university. That the real rite is a <br>rite of sacrifice. Not of the weak but of the strong. Because the more <br>accomplished the target, the more ego and status it yields for everyone <br>else involved to put you six feet under.<br><br>The world needs to know the real story. That this is the real Cambridge.<br><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Too often, the voices of those who have suffered bullying in Universities go unheard. Their pain is hidden behind a culture of fear and silence. Their experiences are dismissed by the very systems and people who are meant to protect them. The 21 Group has published the experiences of victims [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2817,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/2817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/21percent.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}