Rawson Responds

By: Andy Horrigan, Safira Schiowitz, Catherine Wu

On the morning of Tuesday September 21, during the Core Values Project block, Principal William Rawson addressed faculty and students about the administration’s goals to change the Academy’s culture and sentiments surrounding sexual assault.

Eight days before, Nancy Jo Sales’ ’82 article, “Mr. Weber’s Confession,” was published in Vanity Fair. The piece described several cases of sexual harassment and assault throughout Exeter’s recent history, as well as how the administration allegedly handled those cases. 

In response, co-heads of Exonians Against Sexual Assault (EASA), Feminist Club, Transitions, and Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) organized a protest that took place on Friday, September 17. Principal Rawson’s remarks the following Tuesday responded to this series of events.

“We can and must do better,” Rawson said in his speech. “We must provide student leaders and all students with all the support they need when traumatic events occur.”

“Going forward, we make the following commitments: We will reexamine how we support students, student leaders, and the entire school community when traumatic events occur, and put structures and plans in place so that we can provide students the support they need. We will reexamine the training of student leaders to ensure that it is adequate to prepare them for the roles they are expected to play. Including, in particular, ensuring that they have the training they need to know how to help students who are suffering trauma of any kind and get the help they need from adult resources,” Rawson continued.

Referring to the discontinuation of Principal’s Discretion and the establishment of the Sexual Misconduct Committee in 2019, Rawson said, “With respect to the handling of sexual misconduct cases on our campus, we are going to consider structural changes to our processes, as we did two years ago, to better position the school to provide the support that students need when reporting an assault and when participating in an investigation. We will ensure that we have the resources and expertise, including expert consultants where appropriate, necessary to fulfill the commitments that we make today.

“We will give these matters the urgent attention they deserve. We will fulfill the commitments that we make today. We will continue to work with students and student leaders, including those student leaders with whom we met last night, to hear and address all of your concerns,” Rawson continued.

In an interview with The Exonian, Rawson elaborated on his remarks responding to how the administration will address students’ concerns. 

Students have expressed discontentment with the Anti-Retaliation Clause, which states, “Any student engaging in retaliation against a reporting student, a responding student, or any other student…is subject to misconduct review or community conduct action. Retaliation may include…unwanted attempts to contact a student involved in the report, asking others to contact a student involved, spreading rumors about other students, surveying others for information about an alleged incident, or threats or harassment of any kind.”

The clause also states, “You should not speak to any other students about the interview. Speaking with other students about it may bring unintended consequences that include compromising the confidentiality of the investigation or even accusations of retaliation, which could result in community conduct action.”

  Students have also discussed dislike of the phrase “sexual misconduct” in place of wording more specific to individual cases, as well as other school policies surrounding sexual assault. 

Upon being asked whether the Academy plans to change these aspects of how sexual assault reports are handled, Rawson said in an interview, “These policies and practices serve important purposes. To consider changes, we need to understand the concerns that have been raised.  It would be helpful to talk in more depth with students about these issues and we will be seeking out those conversations.”

Some students have also expressed that they feel the Academy’s current process for reporting sexual assault cases does not sufficiently balance the victims’ needs with legal protocol. Rawson stated that the process “must comply with legal requirements, but in most respects is not driven by legal requirements.” He reiterated, “It would be helpful to hear from students directly on this issue to understand specific concerns. 

“Having said that,” Rawson continued, “we have committed to considering structural changes to better position the school to support students when they report an assault or participate in an investigation, and are working on that now.”

Rawson also spoke on his and the administration’s discussions with student leaders. “I stand by the comments and commitments I made at the outdoor Assembly,” he said. “We will continue to work with students and student leaders to hear and address their concerns, much as we have worked with student leaders in the past when modifying our ‘consent’ definition, creating a misconduct review board process, and considering other changes.”

Rawson emphasized the administration’s approach to improving the Academy’s handling of sexual assault cases. “Our intent always is to conduct any investigation and take any subsequent action in a way that is supportive and minimizes harm to survivors and anyone else who might be affected by the investigation.” 

He continued. “We made wholesale changes to our protocols two years ago, in consultation with students, with these concerns in mind. We made significant improvements, and are considering further changes and consulting with outside experts. We also will continue to prioritize efforts to build student awareness and understanding of issues pertaining to healthy relationships, consent, and prevention of sexual assault. We are looking for concrete actions that make a real difference.”

Upper and EASA co-head Riley Jones discussed student groups’ efforts towards tangible change at the Academy. “The Assembly [protest] and the Community Healing Space was definitely a completely equally a joint effort between Fem Club, Transitions and EASA, we all worked together. We all very much share the same hopes and ideas for this school moving forward, and it was definitely a big collaborative effort,” Jones said.

“We first planned the community healing space,” Jones continued, “which was last Thursday. That took up quite a bit of time after the Vanity Fair article came out. It was pretty much all student led, student facilitated. We focused on that and then we also striked assembly last Friday. We wrote the demands with the Fem Club and Transitions. We did the demands and we also met with Principal Rawson and some of the administration on Monday [September 20] to discuss the demands that we had made.”

Jones expressed her thoughts on Principal Rawson’s response and apology. “They seem to be willing to listen to us, but I think it's the administration, so I'm on the fence about whether things are actually gonna happen to the full extent that's laid out and the demands, but I'm also hopeful that they'll listen to us. They seem genuinely like they wanted to help change the culture on campus. I'm hoping that we can continue to take steps towards changing the culture on campus.”

Regarding the work between the administration and student community for change at the Academy, Jones hoped for a continuous effort. “I'm hoping that it's going to be an ongoing thing,” Jones said. “I don't think that we'll stop at EASA trying to push for ongoing meetings to keep meeting, to keep trying to make change. I'm hoping that he [Principal Rawson] feels the same way that this is not a one-time conversation or one-off kind of thing. It's something that we need to keep talking about until campus culture changes, because even when it gets better, it'll never be at its best.”

Jones introduced her ideas for concrete actions the Academy could take. “First, I wish that you would make sure that adults on campus that are running student leader organizations know to discuss it... [Second,] I think just making sure the faculty are ready to support people, and just to stop using passive language and the emails, that was my big thing.”

Lower Advay Nomula expressed hopes for more specific actions to be taken. “I feel like the remarks were very general, and didn’t provide too much information. I don’t believe it was sufficient enough of a response, it seemed something thrown together to stop the protesting… It felt very diplomatic, vague, and didn't seem to provide a solution, but I’m hopeful that there will be some practical things that I’ll see that the school will actually do. But my cynical side believes that they are just saying this to satisfy the student’s needs,” Nomula said.

“I’m going to be completely honest here, I didn’t hear that much. The audio quality was bad, and with the occasional wind blocking the sound I didn’t get a full hearing. I believe it wasn’t the best setting to provide the apology/solutions, it should’ve been done in an assembly with everyone there, paying attention, and able to understand,” Nomula continued.

Senior Krisha Deora expressed views on Rawson’s response. “In terms of the fact that it was like a first response, I think it was sufficient. I guess he responded to it pretty quickly and he was prepared, which is nice to know that he was thinking about it.”

Deora added, “...in general it needs to be more specific, especially for students to be satisfied because we want to see that change is being taken. Keeping us in the loop as well as making actual, substantial change, instead of saying things like reforming or administration, which we don't really know what that means.”

Jones shared similar thoughts about continued action beyond the response. “[Principal Rawson’s] apology was an important step in the right direction of the administration owning up for their mistakes, saying sorry, and knowing that it's okay to fumble as an administration, but you need to take action and own up to that. We talk so much about community, and that's super important to build a community, it’s like accountability.”

Jones credits Exeter alumni as an integral part of the community. “They've sent so many testimonies and so many supportive words towards students here. I think especially the recent alumni class of 2020 and 2021, still, this is very much a conversation that they were present for. I felt that the fact that we had alumni testimonies read during the assembly was really powerful, it kind of shows how strong the student community is here,” Jones said.

Jones commented on ways for students and faculty and administration to be more connected at the Academy. “The administration-- keeping themselves accountable for what they're doing and owning up to their mistakes helps build trust... Gradually as we talk about this as a community and we heal, the gap between students and faculty will like get bridged. I think in some cases, maybe there's too much distrust to come back from it,” Jones said. 

Senior and Transitions co-head Adaeze Barrah felt that much remains to be seen. “It [the address] was very mellow. It did not match the intensity of the dissatisfaction the students expressed in him and his administration of the academy,” she said. Barrah continued, “because regardless of what was said during the speech, the actions that follow are the true indicators of growth and student recognition.”

Jones concluded with her thoughts on Rawson’s statement. “I would say it's the best apology that we've had in the three years since I've been here… I am glad he [Principal Rawson] decided to speak in person. I think it made it feel more personal and I'm glad he didn't send an email… There were still some maybes, but I think this is going to take time and he genuinely seemed like he was willing to put in the work, so did Dr. Lassey and Dr. Bramlett and everybody else involved… But I think it doesn't take away from the fact that there's still a burden on student leaders, and that needs to change.”