By Liv Barry
Editor-in-Chief
Following the contentious Sept. 4 announcement of Princeton University Professor of Constitutional Law and Political Philosophy Dr. Robert George’s speaker event, Washington College faculty members took to email to share their thoughts, only to find their communications blocked.
According to previous Elm coverage, Dr. George’s speaking engagement came into question shortly after the announcement of the event, when campus members discovered the professor’s Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation accountability profile, which details homophobic and transphobic comments made by the invitee.
Director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House and Associate Professor of English Dr. James Allen Hall tried to be the first to alert the College about Dr. George’s comments after researching the Speaker.
“I just wanted to know more about [Dr. George]. The invitation didn’t really say much about him, so I just wondered what his background was, what his research was. I do this with events that I might want to go to,” Dr Hall said. “When I found this really disturbing stuff, I thought, ‘Well, people should have a heads up so they can decide for themselves whether or not they want to attend.’”
On the night of Sept. 4, Dr. Hall attempted to send an email to the faculty and staff roster, otherwise known as the listserv, that contained further information about the speaker, including a link to the accountability profile and the personal reasons why he would not attend the event.
According to Dr. Hall, at the time of sending, he knew that the message had to be approved by the faculty and staff listserv’s administrator, which, per the College’s email policy, is the Provost Office. However, the following morning, he realized that the email was never sent.
After reaching out to the Provost Office for clarity, Dr. Hall learned that his message was under review because the correspondence was not consistent with the aforementioned all-campus email policy, according to Vice President for Marketing and Communications Brian Speer.
According to the WC website, mass emails must adhere to the following guidelines: “Messages that are relevant to all members of the distribution list and directly relate to carrying out the business and operations of the College; messages that relate to changes in College policy or time sensitive issues; messages containing urgent announcements related to safety or other critical issues; messages that promote or publicize events, activities or opportunities available to members of the campus community.” Dr. Hall then contacted Speer to see what the appeals process looked like for emails under review.
According to Dr. Hall, Speer told them that the GLAAD resource would be used in a campus-wide communication from the President’s Office, which Dr. Hall acquiesced to in order to increase the visibility of the issue.
On the afternoon of Sept. 6, the President’s Office sent a campus-wide email addressing the concerns about Dr. George, encouraging students to attend the event to widen their perspectives.
“It is incumbent upon us as a community to create and maintain an environment in which everyone feels safe to share their ideas, even those that may be controversial or offensive. And as a community, we must examine and, when necessary, challenge those ideas, but we cannot insulate ourselves from differing viewpoints,” President of the College Dr. Mike Sosulski said.
After recognizing the discomfort of LGBTQ+ students, staff, and faculty members, President Sosulski listed a number of resources, including a discussion to “hold space” in The Egg in Hodson Hall, as well as Dr. George’s GLAAD webpage. “James Hall, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House, has identified a resource to help inform the campus community about the speaker and I share that resource here, for those who wish to make use of it,” the email said.
While Dr. Hall wanted the public resource to be shared, they were unaware that their name would be attached to the communication from the President’s Office.
“I did not understand why my name appeared in the email…in some ways, I felt like it co-opted my voice. I don’t think that was the intent, but it was the impact,” Dr. Hall said.
They said that as an openly LGBTQ+ faculty member, the blocking of the email and subsequent use of his name in the campus-wide email felt “pointed.”
However, President Sosulski said that the situation was a customary instance of organizational email moderation.
“Moderation is a very common feature of college and university. It is not an infringement of anyone’s academic freedom. No one is censoring content. No one is telling anyone that they can’t hold an opinion or publish their opinion,” President Sosulski said.
Dr. Hall was not the only faculty member whose correspondence was blocked. Clifton H. Miller Dean of Library and Academic Technology Dr. Mary Alice Ball also tried to send an email on the afternoon of Sept. 6 to encourage students to attend the talk, despite George’s comments.
After her email was not sent, Dr. Ball “stopped by Bunting that evening” to inquire about the status of her message.
“Chief of Staff [Vic] Sensenig told me that they had been inundated with messages about the speaker and decided to embargo all of them. That made sense to me, and I left,” Dr. Ball said.
To avoid future confusion about email regulation, the Provost Office and Faculty Council are working toward an alternative channel of communication.
“This experience has been very helpful in looking at the policy that was put into place in the summer of 2022. While it has a very particular purpose — which could be better articulated —the fact is that the policy replaced a venue that the College community used for discourse without providing an alternative outlet,” Speer said. “We have begun discussions about revisiting the all-campus email policy for clarity purposes and providing an internal outlet for a full range of community discourse absent moderation beyond community standards of civility.”
Photo by Parker Thorton
Photo Caption: Bunting Hall houses both the VP of Communications office, as well as the President’s.