The following is the text from the open letter sent to President Glassner from the undersigned faculty of the College of Arts & Sciences regarding the incident last fall in Holmes Hall described as “racist chanting.”
We the undersigned wish to register our concern about the incident last fall in Holmes Hall, described as “racist chanting.” We recognize both the seriousness of the allegations and the potentially chilling effects of the incident itself on a predominantly white campus. In recent weeks, however, media outlets beyond Lewis & Clark have picked up the story, highlighting the College’s questionable treatment of free speech and of our students’ right to due process.
Since the incident was initially brought to the faculty’s attention in the fall of 2013, several faculty have asked for more information about what happened and about the disciplinary actions that resulted. Thus far, these questions have been met with silence. We believe the Lewis & Clark community needs to be fully informed, and so we respectfully request that our president and other administrators break their silence and help the community understand what happened and what policies are in place that informed our College’s response.
40 signatories listed in alphabetical order according to their first names:
Andrea Hibbard, English
Barb Balko, Chemistry
Bruce Podobnik, Sociology/Anthropology
Cara Tomlinson, Art
David Campion, History
Elliott Young, History
Freddy Vilches, Foreign Languages
Isabelle DeMarte, Foreign Languages
James Duncan, Chemistry
James Proctor, Environmental Studies
Jerry Harp, English
Juan Carlos Toledano Redondo, Foreign Languages
Julio de Paula, Chemistry
Karen Gross, English
Katja Alpeter-Jones, Foreign Languages
Kurt Fosso, English
Loretta Johnson, Core
Lyell Asher, English
Margot Black, Mathematics
Mary Szybist, English
Matthieu Raillard, Foreign Languages
Michael Broide, Physics
Michael Johanson, Music
Michael Olich, Theatre
Mindy Johnston, Music
Mo Healy, History
Niko Loening, Chemistry
Peter Christenson, Rhetoric and Media Studies
Reiko Hillyer, History
Rishona Zimring, English
Stepan Simek, Theatre
Stephen Tufte, Physics
Stephen Weeks, Theatre
Stuart Kaplan, Rhetoric and Media Studies (Emeritus)
Susan Glosser, History
Suzanne Groth, Academic English Studies
Therese Augst, Foreign Languages
Todd Lochner, Political Science
Will Pritchard, English
Yung-Pin Chen, Mathematics
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