Four days ago, the New York Times ran a devastating account of the horrific mishandling of a sexual assault incident at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The long, extensively reported piece is a difficult read, but an essential one.
Lady Justice is totally asking for it.
Today’s New York Times featured a letter from a college trustee. It is not an apology. It does not fall under the purview of this blog. But it is so egregiously awful in its spin-management efforts, attention must be paid. Here’s the letter in its entirety, followed by SorryWatch’s Dov–Seidmanian analysis of why it is not only a terrible non-apology, but also a terrible public relations attempt. I have helpfully annotated it for you.
To the Editor:
Re “Reporting Rape, and Wishing She Hadn’t” (front page, July 13):
The Hobart and William Smith Colleges community is heartbroken by our student’s experience, and we deeply regret 1 the pain she has suffered. Her experience does not reflect2 the environment, values and traditions we have built and maintained for nearly two centuries 3 at Hobart and William Smith. As an alumna 4, a proud mother 5 of a daughter 6 who graduated from HWS, and chairwoman 7 of the board of trustees, I write with a heavy heart.
Like all colleges and universities, HWS is challenged to ensure that we are meeting the demands of a shifting legal landscape 8 — especially in the area of sexual assault — as we also work to meet the needs of students while fostering a safer and more collegial learning environment.
We welcome the conversation about whether higher education should even have a role in adjudicating cases like this one. 9 However, until federal law changes, 10 we are required to carry out internal investigations and adjudicate cases based on the preponderance of evidence standard 11, as we did in this case.
During the past year, Hobart and William Smith Colleges have worked with national leaders12 in the field and have completed a review of our sexual misconduct policy.13 One of the country’s leading experts on the issue, Brett A. Sokolow, affirmed the conclusions of this case and observed that our process meets or exceeds best practices for higher education.14
Could we have handled some things differently in this case? Of course.15 However, it remains my opinion as a feminist, 16 mother, 17 daughter, 18 sister 19 and leader 20 that Hobart and William Smith handled this case properly, with compassion, respect and seriousness.
Within three minutes of receiving a call, our Campus Safety officers were on the scene for support and to advise the student of her rights and options for counseling and health care. Within one hour, the Geneva Police Department was notified.21
As was reported in The Times, the District Attorney’s Office concluded it would not press charges. On the basis of the information we have, much of which was not reported in The Times, 22 and despite the intense reaction to the article, 23 we stand by the results of our process.
Nothing I am writing diminishes the student’s suffering. Going forward, there is much more that HWS and every college and university can learn and do. 24
We owe it to every member of our community to ensure that no student ever feels the pain and grief that this young woman has endured. That is why Hobart and William Smith Colleges pledge to build a new model of governance for this issue. 25 Our attention and focus have never been higher.26
MAUREEN COLLINS ZUPAN
Chairwoman, Board of Trustees
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Geneva, N.Y., July 15, 2014
Thetis, please describe the way you were dancing.
1. We regret this girl’s pain. We don’t apologize for it, but we regret it. In a theoretical, non-responsibility-accepting kind of way.
2. Her experience, whether it happened the way she says or not (NOT), does not reflect anything about this school. Much as a vampire does not have a reflection in the mirror, this woman’s experience — which I have not yet put a name to and will not put a name to, because if you give a thing a name, it has power, like when you say Bloody Mary into a mirror three times — may or may not be epistemological truth. According to laws of vampire metaphysics, the vampire may be there or may not be there, but there is no reflection, so really, the vampire might as well not be there. Similarly, our VALUES say that this woman’s experience, WHATEVER IT WAS, isn’t who we are. Q.E.D., her “experience” says nothing about this school. Unlike Bloody Mary — who definitely appears, especially if you name her when you are at a wholesome slumber party like the ones I enjoyed in my days as a coed — the vampire in all likelihood is not there. Because there are no such things as vampires. Or sexual assault victims at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
3. Two centuries. James Madison days, yo. Our hallowed stone will remain long after this girl’s unseemly tale of pool-table-related woe is forgotten.
4. vagina 5. vagina 6. vagina 7. POWERFUL VAGINA. All these vagina references put the lie to your silly notions of misogyny at this school or in our culture. My POWERFUL VAGINA is sad, in a nebulous sort of way, for the suffering of a young sister-vagina, but that’s neither here nor there.
8. The legal landscape, it is like quicksand! Whooaaaa! It’s like the San Andreas fault in 1989, which affected Stanford, a far less illustrious institution! No one can be expected to stay on his or her (but probably his) feet in these confusing, wacky legal times!
9. You could argue that we have no responsibility here AT ALL. You totally could.
10. Federal law. Whaddayagonna do, amirite? Our hands are tied.
11. This was how it (again, not naming It, like a clown in a Stephen King story) had to play out. THERE WAS NO OTHER OPTION. We were as powerless as a passed-out freshman girl.
12. We worked with national leaders. Tons of them. You’d know their names.
13. and 14. We’ve looked into our hearts. In addition to talking to the national leaders. So we know we did everything right. “EXCEEDS BEST PRACTICES,” SUCKAS.
15. [Snarly here: The friend of SorryWatch who brought this to our attention called this non-specific, blithe shrug “the Rumsfeldian rhetorical self-answer.” In addition to being offensive in its nonchalance, it makes no sense in context, since Zupan has just said the college did everything right.]
16. vagina 17. vagina, 18. vagina 19. vagina 20. POWERFUL VAGINA.
21. Within THREE MINUTES our campus safety officers were ON THE SCENE! Like BATMAN. (Unsaid: Within TWELVE DAYS we found the perpetrators not guilty, despite not having the medical evidence showing internal damage. Within TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT DAYS we’d shamed the girl publicly by releasing her name, failed to take disciplinary action against the football players even as their stories shifted like the legal landscape and remained publicly silent until you ran this story, you pesky ill-informed New York Times that doesn’t respect 200 years of tradition JAMES MADISON JAMES MADISON JAMES MADISON.)
22. You don’t know everything, you know. You don’t know what we know. Which we can’t tell you anything about, other than that it exists. Like an unlooked-at medical report. Or maybe a vampire. I can’t really say.
23. When you think about it, institutionally, we’ve suffered just as much as that girl.
24. Well, sure, we can do more. Can’t say how. Because we did everything right. But I’m sure there’s something we can do, like provide wet wipes by the fraternity pool tables or something.
25. From now on, we are going to LEAD. We are LEADERS.
26. This sentence says absolutely nothing. But in a RINGING, CLARION-Y way.
***
The person who suggested we write about this, despite it being a non-apology, is a prominent business leader. He knows from management decisions and coping with PR crises. He said in his email:
[C]orrect damage control requires her to be merely abject & then shut the fuck up to stop the bleeding, e.g. “We are heartsick about what happened in this extremely troubling case and working hard to do better. As a community of learning, we must work together—students and parents, staff and faculty, alumni and public—to uphold the high ideals that have made our schools shining examples of excellence in co-education for more than a century.” Full stop. When she points fingers elsewhere (“federal law”; “leading experts”), all she is doing is creating points of resistance where critics can focus attacks.
There is a long note on the college web site, signed by the school’s president, saying that the reporter deliberately refused to listen to the university’s side and got the facts wrong and the college can’t really be specific about what the reporter got wrong because LEGAL REASONS. There is also a petition being circulated, written by 23 current Hobart and William Smith students, calling on the university to make specific changes in how it handles sexual assault on campus. Among the 3.458 signatures (as of this writing) and appended statements, the most popular one urges the college president: “Immediately apologize to the student concerned, sincerely, honestly, and privately. If she consents, you should make that apology public in order to show the appropriate level of remorse and responsibility that you are legitimately responsible for.”
The blindfold actually symbolizes impartiality and objectivity. (In this case: LOL.)
We’ll be waiting. But we won’t hold our breath.
Holy hell. I am FAINT with disgust. She is sure that this was handled properly, with compassion and seriousness!? The egregiousness of the words should have welded her tongue to the roof of her mouth.
As a feminist, mother, daughter, sister, and VAGINA, I am not impressed by Ms. (come on, she self-identified as a feminist…) Collins Zupan. I am impressed by SorryWatch’s laser focus (ooh, shiny) on Ms. CZ’s (pool)table dance. I would add one additional annotation. By mentioning that her own daughter (gasp) attended HWS, Ms. CZ makes clear that HWS is indeed a wonderland of wonderful…for young women who behave or whose mom is a PVOC (POWERFUL VAGINA ON CAMPUS).
As someone who’s worked at a Big Ten land grant university (yeah, that’s right…stuff it, HWS), and in marketing for many years, I write with a heavy heart at the calculated “empty” of this statement and the sadz of the HWS office of communications with having to work with such intentionally insular knobs.
“INSULAR KNOBS.”
Oh… ick… the slime…
“There is a very special place in hell for women who don’t support other women.” -Madeleine Albright