Students View Administrative Responses as Intimidation

During the Oct. 7 Student Council-led "goodness Assembly," senior Ella Werthan expressed her opinion about the wording of one of the College Counseling Office’s philosophies. Werthan suggested that the phrasing of the philosophy—that when a student gets into a school with an acceptance rate of ten percent or less he or she must withdraw their applications from other schools—has the unintended consequence of causing animosity among seniors, instead of the non sibi effect the philosophy is intended to foster.

Read The 136th Exonian Board's editorial, "Promote Conversation, Not Intimidation," on The Exonian Online.

The following week, when seniors met in groups with their college counselors, some of the counselors referred to Werthan’s comments without mentioning her name.

Werthan said that fellow seniors approached her afterwards, telling her that some counselors were upset with the views she had expressed.

Werthan later spoke to Director of College Counseling Betsy Dolan about what she (Werthan) described as a misinterpretation of her comments. Once she clarified to Dolan that "I wasn’t criticizing the way [CCO] was doing this, and I was instead criticizing the way students interpreted it, [Dolan’s] whole demeanor changed."

Dolan said that she aimed to speak face to face with Werthan to have a discussion, not to discipline.

Dolan hopes that, when engaging any student in a one-on-one dialogue, the student does not see the conversation as a "reprimand," but rather "an opportunity [for me] to talk with the student as a mentor."

"It’s not a ‘don’t say that again,’ but rather ‘did you think about it this way?’" Dolan said. "It’s a private dialogue that I hope enlightens, engages and develops the student."

Werthan, however, was troubled by the feeling that if she had had an opinion contrary to CCO’s, Werthan may have faced harsher consequences.

"The general feeling I had was that I shouldn’t have said anything, and that isn’t healthy," she said.

Werthan isn’t the only student or faculty member that an administrator has spoken to after publicly expressing an opinion.

In the past few years, both students and faculty say they members of PEA’s administration have approached them to address contentious comments from Exonian articles or public forums.

Like Werthan, students or faculty to whom the administrators have spoken about their opinions have felt reprimanded.

At the same time, administrators interviewed said these meetings have simply been "conversations" or attempts to make sure that the facts are known, as Dean of Students Melissa Mischke and Dean of Residential Life Arthur Cosgrove have said.

Mischke said that, from her perspective, the goal of these conversations is not to chide the student or faculty member. She said that these conversations take place when the deans feel articles are untruthful or don’t tell the complete story.

"It’s always a conversation trying to reach some sort of understanding," Mischke said. "It’s never, ‘you can’t do that.’"

Mischke explained that the deans engage students they feel wrote an inaccurate piece to "set the truth" and "understand their perspective."

"I’ve been in the dean’s office for 8 years, and I would say maybe twice I’ve reached out to someone saying, ‘that’s just crazy,’" she said.

"There are deans that will reach out...because they feel like they understand, or we’ve talked about it as a dean’s group and we feel like we need to address it."

Yet other deans did not seem aware that these discussions were even taking place.

"I can’t think of a conversation that I've had about [student opinions]," Dean of Faculty Ronald Kim said. With regards to more controversial opinions expressed in The Exonian, Kim said that "trying to get quotes from different people from different sides… [is] your responsibility as a journalist."

The E Book protects a student’s right to freedom of speech and expression that does not "intend to sponsor the publication of grossly inappropriate or harmful material." In other words, unless the content is obscene or harmful, students have the right to express their opinions.

Michael Golay, former Exonian adviser and history instructor, outlined the process that created the current regulations. Several years ago, a publications committee composed of faculty and students debated the guidelines before finally approving them in a vote.

"This is the color of law governing expression at Exeter, and it very broadly grants students rights to expression," Golay said.

Yet the reaction to certain individuals’ expression may have what one student described as a "chilling effect" on those who do speak up, resulting in some students and faculty feeling discouraged from sharing their controversial opinions in the future.

For example, The Exonian approached two faculty members who had been brought in for conversations with the deans. Neither wanted to comment for this analysis.

Benj Cohen, Student Council president, Exonian Business Board chair and one of the students who led the goodness Assembly, shared his disappointment in the aftermath of the assembly. "Kids felt intimidated by the conversations they had afterwards with faculty and deans," he said.

He described the events following the goodness Assembly as "an issue." "No one will want to speak out, and then nothing will change," Cohen said. "What upsets me is this growing fear and culture of self-censorship."

An anonymous senior said a dean approached him after the senior wrote an editorial in The Exonian. "There was no direct punishment," he said, "but the meeting was very confrontational."

The student said that this discouraged him and discourages others from voicing opinions that may not please the administration. "[I]t sends a chilling effect to those who dare speak up."

These recurring incidents are not unique to the 2014-2015 school year. Nikhil Chuchra ‘14 spoke about an opinion piece titled "Hazing Together" he wrote during his lower year.

He argued that, in some cases, communities can bond through hazing, and that since his dorm had cracked down on their anti-hazing policies, he "didn’t feel close to the younger kids anymore."

Dean of Residential Life Arthur Cosgrove talked to Chuchra about his opinions.

"He told me that I can’t publish things like that in the paper, and that now there is a ‘whole mess’ for the deans to clean up,’" Chuchra said.

Cosgrove said that as an educator and a dean, he felt "a responsibility to respond by having a conversation about this tradition."

He continued to say that part of writing an opinion piece is listening to peoples’ responses to and being able to have a dialogue about what was written.

Other students and faculty have been approached about op-eds, and more recently, Zoha Qamar, senior and co-editor of The Exonian opinions page, said that, after writing two opinion pieces this fall, she was approached by a dean in order to meet and discuss her op-eds in a manner she described as "negative."

While Qamar understands that disagreement is natural, she felt as if she "was being told that [her] opinion was false, which is in fact a poor counterargument because they are just that: ‘opinions.’" Qamar was also perturbed because the facts she had used to form her opinions were "disregarded" in the meeting.

As an opinions editor, she also felt that the perceived admonishment is harmful to the value of op-eds. It "defeats the entire purpose of voicing an honest opinion or evaluation, or even allowing an opinions page to exist in the first place," Qamar said.

Other students have experienced a similar response from deans to opinion pieces. Last year, when senior—then upper—Danna Shen, who is also co-editor of The Exonian opinions page, expressed her view on how Exeter approached diversity, religion instructor Russell Weatherspoon responded in a way "that we didn’t find constructive, but instead just felt like he said our opinion was wrong and that’s it."

"It’s frustrating because it feels like there’s an expectation that everyone must feel that an opinion is correct before it can be published," Shen said.

Weatherspoon explained that "From my perspective, the numerous questions I asked [in response to the op-ed], were not aimed at their opinions but at the facts that shaped those opinions."

English department head Lundy Smith justified the involvement of deans in ensuring that published articles are factually correct. He explained that, from time to time, The Exonian printed "misinformed things," where people commented but did not "have the full picture."

Kim agreed, saying that unless something is "wildly off factually," students and faculty should have the opportunity to express their opinions.

Yet those who have been "called in" believed that the meetings were about more than the correction of facts. Regardless of the administrators’ objectives, by the very nature of meeting with a dean, Shen said that "[i]t is having the effect of a scare tactic, even if that’s not the intent."

While the administrative intent may not be to intimidate, many said that intimidation was the effect. Golay said that, regardless of the case, "a faculty member or a college counselor or a head administrator calling a student in to discuss something they've said... [is] by its very nature intimidating, even if the meeting is supposed to be conversational."

Bill Jordan, history department head and former Exonian adviser, said that when an administrator asks to speak with a student or faculty member, the administrator should "bend over backwards" to make it clear that "the person is not being reprimanded for having or expressing an opinion, unless there’s some very serious legitimate reason."

Golay added that Exeter cannot encourage students to be open and take risks with their opinions at the Harkness table and then not to "exercise the same right when you’re talking to an Exonian reporter, writing an Exonian opinion piece or speaking out in Assembly."

"From what I hear," he said, "there are a number of episodes involving students and faculty members being called into account. Whether that’s sort of a trend or a more aggressive policy on the part of people in charge of the school, I really don’t know. I hope not."

This article was written by authors Gillian Chu, Jack Hirsch, Alice McCrum, Heather Nelson, and Henrietta Riley.