Editor:
How many more disturbing headlines of fraud, rape, official investigations, employee’s hard-won lawsuits and taxpayer-funded “no-fault” settlements, before real reforms are implemented? (“Not Invited to the Table,” June 15, 2023)
Hearing from faculty’s fear of administrative inaction and retaliation if they speak out, Cal Poly Humboldt’s Academic Senate criticized CPH’s president for wanting to keep campus sexual assaults quiet.
Workplaces enforcing silent obedience through fear and favor are hallmarks of authoritarianism common on U.S. military bases and among militarized civilian police officers where violence, rape, and spousal abuse exceed national averages (“On The Town” by Heldman and “The Fort Bragg Murders” by Vann).
Nevertheless, the CSU has delegated Title IX Implementation reforms to CPH administration led by David Hilcox, who doubled-down on the “trust-gap” explaining, “… experts in the field are not needed” and, “… students are hard to schedule.”
Omitting community and campus advocates, experts and proportional numbers of students from the Implementation Team, not only neglects a unique, collaborative educational opportunity, it marginalizes critical voices required for identifying, debating and implementing effective reforms, ensuring continuity of administrator’s authoritarian control and recurring source of harm.
A similar educational opportunity is neglected in administrator’s outsourcing of CPH’s “Oral History Project” compiling graduate’s “Formative Campus Experiences.” Controlling future policy while cleansing the past illustrates the adage, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”
George Clark, Eureka
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‘Not Invited to the Table’
This article appears in McKinleyville, Inc.?.