University Provost David Lee GS ’99 said the University is not creating a new anonymous discrimination reporting system, according toan email sentto the entireUniversity faculty on Wednesdayin response to a March 1 article in The Daily Princetonian.
According to the article, the University might create a system for students to anonymously report discriminatory comments by professors. Lee called the article an “erroneous story” and alleged that it was “filled with errors” that led to concerns within the faculty.
The article quoted Asanni York ’17, co-chair of the Council of the Princeton University Community’s Working Group on Structure and Support, who described ideas for a reporting system to the ‘Prince’ and provided examples from a survey he said was taken of students.
York has not recanted his account. In response to an interview request for this article, Yorkdeferred comment to Lee, who is also the chair of the CPUC Executive Committee and the Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and Vice Provost for Institutional Diversity and Equity Michele Minter.
Lee and Minter both declined to comment for this story.
“We’re trying to work towards creating a platform where we can report professors and preceptors who might say racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic things and not have it affect our grades,” York said in a Feb. 10 'Prince' article about the initial plans of the newly formed Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
York said in an interview for the March 1 article that a survey was distributed to students and one of the questions on the survey asked if students thought there was a need for a new reporting system. He added that students responded with “hundreds of examples” of alleged discriminatory behavior.
In the email he sent to the faculty, Lee said that the CPUC’s Task Force on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has not conducted a survey of students, alleging that the survey had been “fabricated” in the March 1 article. He also wrote that the University “has no intention to create” the new reporting system described in the story and that it was “never discussed.”
Minter wrote a March 2 letter to the editorclarifying that the University already has in place “a robust system for anonymous reporting through [the University Hotline administered by] EthicsPoint.”
The hotline is mentioned as an option on the University’s sexual misconduct website and its “Inclusive Princeton” website, in which the University highlights its diversity initiatives.
The “Inclusive Princeton” website encourages individuals to consult a confidential resource before deciding how to report an incident. The website also notes that “the University’s ability to follow up on anonymous complaints may be limited.”
“Rights, Rules, Responsibilities” says that any individual may contact the EthicsPoint hotline.
The ‘Prince’ contacted 89 faculty members for comment. The majority did not respond, and 12 declined to comment, citing concerns about lack of knowledge.
Assistant Professor of English Kinohi Nishikawa said that students should be made aware of any existing anonymous reporting system.
“This strikes me as something that could be sent out to all undergraduates at the beginning of the term,” he said. “If very few people know about it, is that deliberate, or can we afford to send out an email at the beginning of every semester saying, ‘This resource is here for students of all ranks to ensure a discrimination-free learning environment,’ and maybe even a few words about how it’s vetted, how it’s administered, how anonymity is ensured to the student?”
In the March 1 article, York had noted that while there were processes for reporting discrimination in place, they could be ripe for overhaul because the format of the reporting often requires students to convince certain administrators that discriminatory behavior had occurred and that complaints could be overlooked if students fail to say the right thing at the right time.
The existing processes are also so unclear, arduous and time-consuming as to repel most students, and anonymous reporting may be ineffective because accountability for faculty is weak, Ricardo Hurtado GS, co-chair of the CPUC’s task force on academics and awareness, said in the March 1 article.
Hurtado did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Nishikawa said that faculty should be held accountable in some way for discriminatory behavior.
“Having said that, I wonder if the anonymous system is the best way to go about ensuring a discrimination-free classroom,” he said. “I’m not sure that collating through this impersonal interface is going to be the most effective way of responding to very specific comments in very specific settings.”
Students should see residential college administrators, and especially their directors of studies, as their allies, Nishikawa added, explaining he believed that discriminatory practices would be better corrected in real time through consultation with those administrators.
Anonymous reporting is concerning, but students do have free speech rights, Wilson School lecturer Stanley Katz said.
“You can’t and shouldn’t try to stop people from commenting on anything the faculty and staff do,” Katz said. “On the other hand, if there’s going to be a great concern about what that system is, and what kinds of consequences could follow and so forth, where do you draw the line?”
He added that there is not typically a lot of communication among the faculty about University policy issues unless they receive high-profile attention, Katz said.
“We don’t really have a faculty club on this campus,” he said. “There’s not really a site for this type of discussion.”
Staff writer Annie Yang and contributor Catherine Offord contributed reporting.
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