A letter to the editor from President Veitch

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Author: 

Friends,

The last couple of weeks have been quite tumultuous. And I’m afraid that I may have contributed to that tumult in some unproductive ways through my own email to all of you. I wrote it at a moment when everything seemed to be coming at us at once. A bad idea. Let me try again. I would like to begin by apologizing for a tone that might have alienated those I most wanted to reach–the students and faculty who care most about the issue of sexual assault. And while I am at it, let me also say that I’m sorry if I gave the impression that students or faculty should not be speaking to the media on an issue as important as this one. What I objected to was the implication–reported in the media–that the College is not serious about the issue of sexual assault. We are very serious.

Controversies like this one–particularly for those in the middle of them–can provide a powerful impetus for reflection. Over the past several days I have been engaged in conversation with a number of students, staff and faculty. They have given me some very good advice. I have been surprised by two things: the alarming number of students who have experienced some form of sexual assault at Occidental and beyond; as well as by the range of opinion about how incidents of sexual assault should be addressed by the College. Those conversations point to the necessity of acting promptly and the concomitant need to do so with deliberation–not an easy line to walk. In the course of those conversations, I was reminded of the importance of listening closely and with an open mind.

Already, thanks to my conversations with a thoughtful group of students, I have begun to change my thinking about the need for notification as a visible and persistent reminder of the intolerable incidence of sexual assault on our campus. I see more clearly now that my desire to protect the privacy of the survivor (and perhaps an unconscious and perhaps not entirely blameworthy desire to protect the reputation of the College) could easily lend itself to silence with regard to an issue that must be addressed by all of us. So we will act promptly to address this issue by asking our Office of Campus Safety to send out a campus-wide email reporting incidents of sexual assault. However–and here comes the deliberative part–we will only do so with the permission of the person lodging the report, and we will not provide information that will lead people to identify the specific actors involved. And just to be clear: We cannot use the Oxy Alert system for this purpose because the alert system must be reserved for natural disasters or the presence of a shooter on campus. We will use the campus-wide email system so that everyone will know that an intolerable violation of our commitment to each other has occurred.

Notification, of course, is just the beginning. There are many more issues that need to be addressed; many of them will be more vexing and less subject to compromise. We have a Task Force on Sexual Assault in place, which will issue a report on May 1st. That task force will hold open meetings and publish their minutes on-line. Anyone who wishes to get on the agenda may do so by reaching out to the Co-Chairs, Danielle Dirks and Shelby Radcliffe. The demands made by OSAC will serve as our starting point. Since–as I have said before–I agree in principle with most of them, I expect them to be implemented. Implementation will be subject to the laws of due process and privacy as mandated by our laws, and weighed in conjunction with best practices at other institutions. There will be disagreements, leading to results that will probably look like the policy on notification outlined above. But there will be results. Our goal is to make Occidental nothing short of exemplary in eradicating this scourge on our campus and encouraging the conversation we have on this and other vitally important issues. I invite you to join us.

Jonathan Veitch

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