Subject: Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.
List archive
- From: "Miller, Paige" <>
- Cc: "" <>
- Subject: RE: Standing By Survivors
- Date: Fri, 27 May 2011 08:37:02 -0500
- Accept-language: en-US
- Acceptlanguage: en-US
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I whole heartedly agree with Ms.
Bowdler! I have gained nothing from this exchange except to wonder if this
list is going to be useful to me in the future. Paige Miller Coordinator, Campus Violence
Programs Women's Resource Center The University of Alabama Box 870361 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 (205) 348-5040 Phone (205) 348-5282 Fax Email From: Kevin W. Miller
[mailto:] THANK
YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Kevin Miller, PhD Director, Counseling and Testing Services www.snc.edu/health Reasonable precautions are taken to ensure the
privacy of email but confidentiality cannot be guaranteed
Can I ask for some clarification
about who moderates this list? I would argue that personal
conflicts/attacks/counter attacks do not add to my knowledge base and would
ask that there be some restraint. I suppose we are modeling here that
feeling attacked gives one full permission to attack back – think again
carefully about the work we do. I would also posit that gun
metaphors, and violent images perhaps are not in the best interest of many of
the members of this list and should be unequivocally off limits again, given
the work we all do. Thank you for listening. Michelle Bowdler From: Brett Sokolow [mailto:] John, Despite my conviction that no
one is listening to you, my distaste for the way you spray testosterone at this
list like a weapon (even calling me a gun), and your repeated acts to vilify
anyone (me, Alan Berkowitz, Elizabeth Griego) you disagree with (actually, I’m
in pretty good company and count your enmity as a source of pride), I will make
this one statement and then return to my longstanding belief that what other people
think about me is none of my business. When those in our field act the
way you have, I am reminded of the folly of circling the wagons and shooting
inward (forgive the perpetuation of your gun metaphor). First, use my name. Calling
me out every time I post without doing so is cowardly. I am the hired
“gun” to whom you refer, except I wasn’t hired. UVa is not paying me for
policy assistance or for any PR that my firm releases about this topic.
Second, most of the UVa administration has turned over since your time there,
and while they have not always been perfect, I applaud and appreciate what I
know to be sincere efforts there now. To refuse to see the potential for
change because of an insistence on revisiting the past is remarkably
unforgiving. Couching yourself as a victim’s advocate is just as much
grandstanding as it is for me to promote our policy revision work, but I am
authentic about it. I’m a trained victim’s advocate and have been since
1992. It predates my law degree. We believe that change is most
effective when pushed for externally and internally.
Contrary to your assertions, we have an active victim’s practice, and have had
for some time. It’s not something we trumpet, but it is something we
believe in. We act to advise our campus clients in the suspension and/or
expulsion of sexually violent men EVERY WEEK. We also defend colleges and
universities, and serve as expert witnesses for victims and colleges.
It’s principled, not partisan. We turn down cases frequently. Where
a victim is wronged, we say so. Where a college does right, we stand up
for it. That way, best practices will out. You assert our version
of best practices is to avoid liability for colleges, but our philosophy is
actually to promote victim’s rights, doing right by the victim, and showing
respect and equal dignity for all students as the best road to risk
management. Liability should be managed, but by uplifting victims, not at
their expense. Having lobbied strongly for the
1992 Campus Sexual Assault Victim’s Bill of Rights, and even harder against the
1997 Accuracy in Campus Crime Reporting Act (an ill-conceived Bill that would
have destroyed victim’s privacy by opening campus hearings to the public), I am
grateful for the opportunity for case-by-case and national victim advocacy in
our practice. I am grateful that over the last fourteen years, we have
been instrumental in carrying the equity message of Title IX to our
clients. I am proud that we have publicly challenged FIRE over its recent
efforts to contest the legality of the Dear Colleague Letter. I’m sure
you’ve noticed that this email is about NCHERM, not you. I have mostly
ignored your recent jibes, or responded to them with good humor, and not with
the politics of personal destruction. I won’t take on or take down your
work, who you are, or what you do. I’m too busy doing what I do.
I’ll indulge myself this one response on the list, but won’t respond
again. If you feel a need to persist, please consider taking it off
list. Regards,
Special Counsel to Dominican University (IL) Special Advisor to Whittier College From: Foubert, John [mailto:] Victim Advocate Colleagues, Indeed our field has much to be
thankful for, from those like Wendy Murphy who have worked tirelessly on behalf
of survivors – including those at UVa – who have been victimized and
revictimized by policies that openly work against their best interests.
Thus the need for the now famous OCR Dear Colleague letter. Had UVa made
better decisions before being sent a Dear Colleague letter, subsequent to
several cases being filed with OCR with the help of people who work on behalf
of survivors, they wouldn’t be in the position to scramble in making policy
revisions and putting out press releases through hired guns who say that they
don’t take plaintiffs cases. UVa is one of many examples of an
institution with a long standing problem of revictimizing women through its
sexual assault policy. I witnessed this repeatedly when I worked in the
administration there, and it is a primary reason why I resigned. It seems
that very little has changed, at least until the OCR acted, compelling UVa to
respond. We must all filter mightily the
perspective of those whose primary motive is to protect the legal liability of
colleges and universities. Such a goal can often be in conflict with
finding justice and healing for survivors. If these principles are in
conflict, we must make difficult choices about which resources to use, whose
advice to follow, and which options we should pursue. John Foubert ************************************** John D. Foubert, Ph.D. Associate Professor and Program
Coordinator Anderson, Farris, and Halligan
Professor of College Student Development Oklahoma State University 314 Willard Hall Stillwater, OK 74078 (405) 744-1480 (405) 744-7758 fax http://okstate.academia.edu/JohnFoubert http://education.okstate.edu/index.php/csd-philosophical-framework http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003NCDDYM = |
- Standing By Survivors, Foubert, John, 05/26/2011
- RE: Standing By Survivors, Brett Sokolow, 05/26/2011
- Re: Standing By Survivors, S. Daniel Carter, 05/27/2011
- RE: Standing By Survivors, Bowdler, Michelle, 05/27/2011
- Re: Standing By Survivors, Kevin W. Miller, 05/27/2011
- RE: Standing By Survivors, Miller, Paige, 05/27/2011
- Re: Standing By Survivors, Kevin W. Miller, 05/27/2011
- RE: Standing By Survivors, Brett Sokolow, 05/26/2011
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