First to post! It's here.

Ryan, this is an awesome question, and I'm glad you asked it. In a nutshell, I think the most important thing is to believe the victim. On a campus setting, so much can be done, from boycotting classes taught by that professor to demanding his tenure be reviewed. My hatred of Harold Bloom (god forbid people of color be represented in the literary canon) is incidental to all this.

i agree with kerri. believe the victim.

There is a problem with always believing the one who cries sexual harrassment without intensive investigation. The college where my husband works is a case in point. The students didn't like a certain professor because he made them work for their grades and he was failing a couple students. To get back at him they conspired to get him fired and they did. One female student claimed sexual harrassment and others backed her up. Without even questioning the professor the dean marched into his classroom and fired him on the spot. It later came out that this was a set up but too late. The professor having good credentials got a position at another college. So, just because someone cries sexual harrassment does not mean they are the victim. In this case, and I am not saying it is the majority of cases, the victim was the professor. If indeed a professor is guilty of sexual harrassment s/he should be removed from the school, but only after each side has presented their case and the case has been proven beyond doubt. If the student has perpetrated a crime against the professor, as in the above situation, that student should be removed from the school. In this case, she was not. She was rewarded by being given a passing grade, for a class she was failing, because she was a "victim?" Even after it came out she lied, she still received the unearned passing grade.

Bonnie has a good point. It seems like we need a redesigned system that can combine respect for the victim with respect for the accused. If we flat-out-always believe the victim without proof, we're not really talking due process. At the same time, there needs to BE a due process.

Perhaps the solution is to advocate for institutions to put those processes in place - so there's a way to make an accusation and have it seriously considered without destroying the careers of innocent people (victims and the falsely accused both). I think it may be too late when an accusation of harrassment is already on the table; anything done at that point is bound to be reactionary.

Finally got a response up here

It saddens me that women still aren't being defended by their universities. I remember when I was in school in the early 80's, some of the Grad students took it upon themselves to warn their students about a series of rapes on campus, which the administration had elected to keep quiet. I wish I knew the answer - the only solution I know is to make a pain in the ass of yourself and then move on. It's not fair, but the system favors its own.