Sunday, March 20, 2011

Repost of the Open Letter to the USC Community, from Vice President of Student Affairs Michael L. Jackson

Editors' note: We were heartened to receive the open letter from Vice President Michael L. Jackson regarding the Kappa Sigma email addressed to the university community on March 18th--we hope it marks the beginning of a fruitful dialogue between the students and faculty of USC and the administration regarding how hate speech and sexual violence is reported and investigated on campus. While this email made it clear that the administration has done much more in investigating this event than their initial statements indicated, more needs to be done to ensure that the USC community is a place where sexual violence and hate speech against women is not tolerated.  For this reason, the authors would like to encourage all our signatories and other members of the USC community to attend the meeting being held by a coalition of undergraduate groups who have organized to speak out against hate speech and sexual violence on campus.  This meeting will take place Tuesday, March 22, at 8 pm in THH 113.  Moving forward, we will do all we can to assist this undergraduate coalition in their attempt to engage the administration in a dialogue regarding the many issues that this controversy has brought to public attention.



Open Letter to the USC Community:

I write to express that the University of Southern California (USC) administration and I are appalled by the anonymous email that has circulated in our community. It expresses repulsive views, its sentiments and language demean women, and it contradicts the values and standards of our university.  USC takes great pride in the influence and stature of women in our educational community and the contributions they have made to its development since our founding in 1880.

University administrators first learned of this email in early March, the same way that many of you did.  Concerned students who were upset and appalled by its content forwarded it to staff members in the Division of Student Affairs.  Once received, we began an immediate investigation into its origin. We spoke with the leadership of the USC chapter of Kappa Sigma, the group to which the email was originally sent, we consulted with the Kappa Sigma national fraternity, and we questioned the student who was associated with this email.

We learned the email did not originate at USC.  The student who sent it is not a member of the USC chapter of Kappa Sigma and received it from a friend at another university on the east coast.  For reasons that are still unclear, he then sent it to the listserv of the USC chapter of Kappa Sigma sometime in November 2010.  Following this, the email circulated more broadly in the student community.

The student responsible for circulating this email has been interviewed.  He has apologized and expressed sincere regret for the incident. 

Additionally, the Kappa Sigma Fraternity is conducting its own investigation.  Chapter operations have been suspended so the fraternity can learn how the email was placed on its listserv and why it was not deleted immediately.

The Interfraternity Council (IFC) also looked into this matter.  Although the IFC was not associated directly with the email, it has formulated a plan to take an active role to communicate its disapproval of the email and the sentiment it expresses, collaborating with centers and departments on campus to educate all chapters about the harm of such offensive speech.

USC Student Affairs’ MenCare program, under the Center for Women and Men, is one of several programs the university will use to address this situation.  MenCare started as a federal grant program in partnership with the Rossier School of Education in 2005.  Student Affairs has continued funding the program because of the important role it serves helping students, particularly men, learn how to play an active part in preventing sexual violence.  Moreover, MenCare works with students to uncover and explore the positive and negative pressures society places on both men and women.

As all members of the Trojan Family know, one of our core values surrounds a respect for the rights and dignity of all people.  Indeed, this is a central tenet of the university’s Code of Ethics: “We treat everyone with respect and dignity, even when the values, beliefs, behavior, or background of a person or group is repugnant to us….  We speak out against hatred and bigotry whenever and wherever we find them.”  We thank those of you who have written in recent days to speak out and forcefully articulate your displeasure with the views in the email.  We share your concerns and assure you that this email does not reflect the values and beliefs of the USC community.  We will continue to work to promote healthy relationships, open dialogue, and respect among the members of the Trojan Family—and, as an extension of our mission, to encourage the treatment of all people with dignity and respect. 

Sincerely,

Michael L. Jackson
Vice President for Student Affairs

Monday, March 14, 2011

Open letter to President Nikias regarding the Kappa Sigma affair (signatures updated 3/21)

Editors' note: This letter has been sent to President Nikias's office and will be sent to news outlets within the week. Graduate students and instructors who have added their names by Wednesday, March 14 will be listed in publication, but ongoing support will be appreciated and noted. If you feel that the administration needs to take action and would like to sign this letter urging them to do so, please send an e-mail to safetyforwomenanddignityformen@gmail.com with the subject heading PETITION, your name, position, and department (only USC graduate students, instructors, and recent grads and interested faculty may sign this letter at this time). Our list of signatories will be regularly updated in this forum.

March 14, 2011

Dear President Nikias:

On March 8, we were made aware of the email allegedly being circulated by the USC chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity when it appeared in national news outlets. Many of us were forwarded the article on the issue on jezebel.com by friends and colleagues outside the university.

That the reprehensible views of women and people of color propagated in the email casts the entire university community in a negative light goes without saying, but what compels us to write today is an even more serious issue. Amid the various hateful statements the author makes, he encourages his fellow fraternity brothers to use drugs and alcohol to incapacitate the women they date, telling these young men that “Non-consent and rape are two different things.” This statement goes beyond hate speech; it is an incitement to sexual violence. What was most shocking about the article was that the USC administration has announced that they will not conduct an investigation of the author, or the organization involved in disseminating this email until the national fraternity has completed its own internal investigation.

Some of us, in our daily interactions with undergraduate students at USC as graduate instructors, have had female undergraduates express confusion, anxiety and fear about the prevalent threat of sexual violence at Greek events on and near the USC campus, and have described dismissive treatment by the USC officials from whom they seek help. Others of us have faced recalcitrance from the administration when reporting hate speech against women in our own classrooms. Despite the many exemplary men and women involved with the Greek system at USC, this public embarrassment has revealed both the presence of a culture of sexual violence within the Greek system at USC, and that system’s failure to eradicate that culture on its own.  While this atmosphere of animosity toward women is certainly not unique to USC, failing to respond to such an overt catalyst for discussion of these issues would be a disservice to the university. We believe that USC must take action in the wake of this event to achieve four goals:

1) A full and transparent investigation, led by the administration rather than a Greek undergraduate organization, of the author of the email (if he is indeed a USC student—contrary to the findings of the IFC, recent published reports have suggested that he may be), the individuals involved in disseminating it, and the organization to which they belong.

2) Appropriate disciplinary action being taken against the individuals and organization involved in the production of this incitement to sexual violence, including the issuance of a formal apology to the university community from the fraternity to which the author belonged.

3) The creation of a university-wide forum for the discussion of how hate speech against women and sexual violence is reported and investigated on campus.

4) The issuance of a statement from the administration to the university community condemning the statements made in the email and clarifying avenues of redress available to the targets of hate speech and the victims of sexual violence within the university community.

We look forward to opening the dialogue on this important issue.

Sincerely,
Nada Ayad, Graduate Student, Department of Comparative Literature
Samantha Carrick, Graduate Student, Department of English
Lauren Elmore, Graduate Student, Department of English
Fox Henry Frazier, Graduate Student, Department of English
Lisa Locascio, Graduate Student, Department of English
Stephen Pasqualina, Graduate Student, Department of English
Terry Winningham, Graduate Student, Department of English
Alex Young, Graduate Student, Department of English
Eike Exner, Graduate Student, Department of Comparative Literature
Patricia E. Nelson, Graduate Student, Department of English
Elizabeth Wilcox, Graduate Student, Department of English
Chris Belcher, Graduate Student, Department of English
Lindsay Nelson, Graduate Student, Department of Comparative Literature
Matthew Carrillo-Vincent, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English & Gender Studies
Srinivas Venkata, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
Roxanne Samer, Graduate Student, Critical Studies Department
Jennifer Ansley, Graduate Student, Department of English
Eugene Sanchez, Graduate Student, Department of English
Samuel Solomon, Graduate Student, Comparative Literature
Jackson Bliss, Graduate Student, Department of English
Ricardo Wilson, Graduate Student, Department of Comparative Literature
Megan Carroll, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology
Demetrios Psihopaidas, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology
Anthony Abboreno, Graduate Student, Department of English
James Michael Bennett, Graduate Student, Department of English
Garrett Broad, Doctoral Student, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Phillip A. Lobo, Graduate Student, Department of Comparative Literature
Amanda Weldy Boyd, Graduate Student, Department of English
Alexandrina Agloro, PhD student, Annenberg School for Communication
Jose Navarro, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
Stewart Grace, Graduate Student, Department of English
Lauren Weindling, Graduate Student Comparative Literature Department
Chinmayi Sirsi, Graduate Student, Department of English
Lacey Schauwecker, Graduate Student, Comparative Literature
Judith De Tar, Graduate Student, Department of English
Jonathan Hamrick, Graduate Student, Department of English
M. Barbara Mello, PhD Candidate in English
Lauren Frank, Graduate student, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Meryl Alper, Doctoral Student, USC Annenberg
Shaoling Ma, Ph.D Candidate, Department of Comparative Literature
Andrew Schrock, Ph.D Student, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Charlotte Lapsansky, PhD Candidate, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Jaclyn Selby, Doctoral Student, Annenberg School for Communication
Neta Kligler-Vilenchik, Graduate Student, Annenberg School of Communication & Journalism
Tina Sohaili, Recent Graduate, USC Law School
Mary Ann Davis, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English & Gender Studies
Katharine Zimolzak, Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
Beth L. Boser, Doctoral Student, Annenberg School for Communication
Ioana Literat, PhD Student, Annenberg School of Communication
Inna Arzumanova, PhD Student, Communication Department
Erika Wenstrom, Graduate Student, English Language and Literature
Ray Vichot, Doctoral Student, Annenberg School of Communication
Yvonne Georgina Puig, Assistant Lecturer, The Writing Program
Janel S. Schuh, Doctoral Candidate, Annenberg School of Communication
Alexis Lothian, PhD Candidate, Department of English
Katharine Wells, Graduate Student, Department of Art History
Susannah Nevison, Recent Graduate, Departments of Creative Writing and French
Regena Pauketat, Graduate Student, Department of Critical Studies, School of Cinematic Arts
Elise Suklje Martin, Graduate Student, Department of English
Allie Noyes, Doctoral Student, Annenberg School for Communication
Tal Peretz, Doctoral Student, Department of Sociology
Laurel Felt, Graduate Student, Department of Communication
Caterina Crisci, Graduate Student, Department of Comparative Literature
Shayna Kessel, Graduate Student, Department of English
Cody Todd, PhD Candidate, Departments of English and Thematic Option College Honors
Lee Jameson, MA Candidate, Department of Critical Studies, SCA
Hernan Ramirez, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology
Carol Muske-Dukes, Professor, Department of Literature and Creative Writing; California Poet Laureate
Michael Cucher, Graduate Student, English
Sandra Gruner-Domic, Lecturer, Departments of Sociology and Gender Studies
Scott Reding, Graduate Student, Department of English
Carmen Gonzalez, Doctoral Candidate, Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism
Stacy Gnall, Graduate Student, Department of English
Alexis Landau, Graduate Student, Department of English
Jennifer Barager, PhD Candidate, English Department
Jerome Edwards, Assistant Professor, The Writing Program
Nisha Kunte, Doctoral Candidate, American Studies and Ethnicity
Kevin Egan, Assistant Professor, The Writing Program
Diana Arterian, Recent Graduate and Incoming PhD student, Department of English
Ingrid Leventhal, Graduate Student, Departments of French and Italian
Max Greenberg, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology
Justin Bibler, Graduate Student, Department of English
David Lloyd, Professor, Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Brandon Som, Graduate Student, Department of English
Jolie Chea, Graduate Student, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
Dana Goodyear, Lecturer, Master of Professional Writing Program
David Stein, Graduate Student, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
Sriya Shrestha, Doctoral Student, American Studies and Ethnicity
Huibin Amee Chew, Graduate Student, American Studies & Ethnicity
Reina Fukuda, Graduate Student, School of Policy, Planning and Development
Sabina Zuniga Varela, Graduate Student, School of Theatre
Cecilia Woloch, Lecturer, Department of English
Hannah Smith, Graduate Student, Department of Urban Planning
Jessi Quizar, Graduate Student, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
Yushi Yamazaki, Graduate Student, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
Carolyn Lee, Graduate Student, East Asian Area Studies
Lucille Toth, Graduate Student, Departments of French and Italian
Sandra Kim, Graduate Student, Department of Comparative Literature
Nic John F. Ramos, Doctoral Student,  Department of American Studies & Ethnicity
Michela Musto, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology
Emily Hobson, USC College Distinguished Teaching Fellow, Departments of American Studies & Ethnicity and of History
Umayyah Eleanor Cable, Doctoral Student, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
Jih-Fei Cheng, Doctoral Student, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
Evren Savci, Graduate Student, Departments of Sociology & Gender Studies
Matthew Mendez, Graduate Student, Department of Political Science and International Relations
Simon Radford, Graduate Student, Department of Political Science and International Relations
Laura Yen, Graduate Student, Department of Political Science and International Relations
Danielle Thorpe, Graduate Student, School of Theatre
Yuko Konno, Graduate Student, Department of History
Nicole Giannella, Graduate Student, Classics Department
Janalynn Bliss, Creative Writing Graduate Coordinator, Dept of English; Graduate  Student,
Rossier School of Education & Gender Studies
Molly Bendall, Assistant Professor, Dept of English
Tania Modleski, Professor, Dept of English
Rebecca Lemon, Associate Professor, Dept of English; Director, USC Institute for British and Irish Studies
Aimee Bender, Associate Professor, Dept of English
Dana Johnson, Assistant Professor, Department of English
Velina Hasu Houston, Professor, Dept of Theatre
Susan McCabe, Professor, Department of English
David Roman, Professor, Departments of English and American Studies & Ethnicity
Míchel Angela Martinez, Ph.D. Student of Human Rights and Visual Culture, Politics and International Relations Program
Carolyn O'Neill, Graduate Student, Department of Comparative Literature
Ellen Shiau, Graduate Student, School of Policy, Planning, and Development

The Kappa Sigma letter in the news, March 8 - March 14

Here's a roundup of the media attention to the Kappa Sigma letter, since news of it broke in The Daily Trojan (USC's student newspaper) on March 8, 2011. Links below include original reporting, reposts, and various opinions on the letter and its handling by Kappa Sigma (USC chapter and national), USC's Interfraternity Council, and USC at large. Editors' note: The comments on most of these pages are perhaps more interesting than the modicum of information that has been circulating on the affair.


Kappa Sigma Nationals investigating viral e-mail, Dara Weintraub, The Daily Trojan (online), 8 March 2011

Frat Email Explains Women are "Targets," Not "Actual People," Margaret Hartmann, Jezebel, 8 March 2011

How USC Frat Boys Are Silently Judging You (And Plotting To Rape You), Jessica Wakeman, TheFrisky, 9 March 2011

USC's Kappa Sigma: Women Are Just 'Targets,' Meredith Fineman, The Huffington Post, 10 March 2011

USC's Kappa Sigma Under Fire For E-mail Calling Women "Targets," The Huffington Post, 10 March 2011

The Rules According to a University "Cocksman," Carol Muske-Dukes, The Huffington Post, 10 March 2011

IFC statement says e-mail did not originate at USC, Dara Weintraub, The Daily Trojan (online), 10 March 2011

Student Explains Frat E-mail's Origins, Alleges Cover-Up, Margaret Hartmann, Jezebel, 10 March 2011

USC Students Outraged Over "Offensive" Fraternity E-mail, KTLA News, 11 March 2011

USC's Kappa Sigma at Center of Sexually Explicit E-mail Scandal, Jessica Pauline Ogilvie, LAist, 11 March 2011

USC Frat House Kappa Sigma Sends Out Email That Paints Sorority Women as Prostitutes, 'Targets,' Dennis Romero, LA Weekly Blogs, 11 March 2011

Ugly Frat E-mail Implores Brothers to Rate Sexual Conquests, Ryan Brown, Campus Progress.org, 14 March 2011