Pomona's Abuse of Power

I haven’t blogged recently, but this is simply outrageous. The recent act by Pomona’s “Dean of Women” is an unbelievable abuse of power. The Dean of Women’s actions are unethical on three grounds:

(1) There was absolutely no due process. No one even bothered to ask Kyle or David their side of the story. Simply, the Planned Parenthood representative and the Vox women lied about the details of the event. There is, in fact, video evidence (obviously), that (a) the video device was not concealed, and (b) David and Kyle in fact offered to leave if asked.

The video explicitly shows that David said they would leave if so requested. This directly contradicts Dean Holmes’ statement in the first paragraph of her letter: “When we hear that someone has failed to respect one of the central values of the Women’s Union by recording a conversation in this way, and/or continuing to record when repeatedly told to stop, we feel compelled to respond.”

Holmes clearly does not actually know the facts of the case: she took the accusers at their word, and took punitive action without due process and without asking the students in question their version of the events. (Again, she could have, at least, asked to see the incontrovertible video evidence).

(2) No Pomona college policies were actually violated. There is no video policy (just search it) that actually says that students attending (and not organizing the event) may not record public lectures. In fact, Dean Feldblum’s email to the Pomona student body recognizes this point! At no point in his email did he say any policies were violated; only that “Secretly recording conversations is a violation of the Women’s Union space and is contrary to the values of the Pomona College community." Not only did Dean Feldblum also have the facts wrong—the recording was not secret—but he also acknowledged that in fact no violation of policy occurred.

Dean Holmes’ letter claims that they “had no authority to be involved in the recording of this conversation without the prior knowledge and explicit authorization of Pomona College.” She later says that such “business is against Pomona College policy.” I challenge Holmes to produce that policy. As far as my research can tell, it does not exist. It is also worth noting that no laws were violated.

In fact, it appears that the only College policies violated were violated by the Pomona College administration. The Pomona policies declare that in cases of alleged harassment —since that is the only actual policy that one could claim was broken by the students—the students accused shall have opportunities to respond. The students shall also have the right of appeal, which was also denied in this case.

(3) Finally, on what authority can Dean Holmes prohibit students from conducting actions that are not against local, state, or federal law, or college policy? More specifically, on what authority can Dean Holmes declare that Kyle and David “are prohibited from using, releasing, or in any way disseminating any images that you obtained in your filming,” and that all original video copies must be surrendered, under threat of “further action from the College” and “additional liability”? There is no local, state, or federal law that requires them to do so, and neither is there a college policy that requires it. It is outrageous that Pomona College sends insidious and empty threats to students.

The (probably unilateral) action of the Dean of Women should be immediately overturned, and Kyle and David should be allowed to proceed to do just what they came here to do—take their education seriously. That includes having the ability to access Pomona College resources at times of their choosing.