Hmmm...

[wshaffer]

I received a response from Mary Miller to the email I posted about earlier. I'm not sure how I feel about it - she said some things that pleased me, and some things that pushed some negative hot buttons. I'll read it again before I really know how I feel.

However, Ms. Miller did say one thing that possibly puts a different light on the university's apparent inaction: she said that university disciplinary proceedings were, as required by university policy and Federal law, confidential.

Which means that the university could be throwing the book at these students, or could be letting them off with a slap on the wrist. And we'd never know.

And I suppose I understand the reasons why disciplinary proceedings are confidential, and I certainly wouldn't want Yale to break Federal law. But I'm frustrated, because I'm really not sure that I feel that the university's response has been adequate. It's great that the community has "opened a dialogue" about sexual harassment, as Miller said in her email. But if these jerks had marched past my bedroom window when I was a Yale freshman, I'd have been interested in dialogue, sure, but I'd also have been interested in making sure that it didn't happen again. And the silence around the disciplinary proceedings, however necessary, is going to make it seem like it will happen again, because any consequences will be invisible.

Comments

[vvvexation.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they're allowed to make a public statement about what they will do the next time something like this happens.

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

I'd have been interested in a bazooka. :)

I get your disappointment, though.