Warnings of Wilner's Drunken Misbehavior Clear From 2008

Michael Wilner CMC '11's drunken behavior has been well known for at least two years. As a sophomore, Wilner had an altercation with some students in Fall 2008 when he loudly played his music and drunkenly disrupted a group of students who had been playing video games in the hall.  

In a letter dated September 20, 2008, five floormates of Michael Wilner CMC '11 wrote to their R.A. (The letter was subsequently sent along to Ethan Andyshak, the then-dean of residential life. It has come into The Claremont Conservative's possession and I quote from it here. It's clear from reading the letter that the early warning signs were there.

At approximately 11:45 PM that night we began to play Rock Band out in the lounge. Everyone who was around that wing of the floor was playing; there was no one else in the area. About 15 minutes into our game, Michael Wilner and a few friends came back to the floor and began to blast loud music from Michael’s room, which is directly adjoining the lounge, and they propped the door open.

It was clear to all of us there, including individuals who were with Michael, that they were purposefully being obnoxious and trying to disrupt our game. It was also clear that they had been drinking. I asked two or three times as people were walking in and out of the room if they could turn the music down; no one responded. Michael was /not /among those who I asked. I proceeded after a few minutes to look into the room and close the door.

It is worth noting that at no point before they turned on the music and opened the door had anyone asked us if we would be bothered, and at no point had Michael ever indicated that he was bothered by our playing the game or our use of the lounge.

After I closed the door, Michael came out and confronted me, saying that I had no right to close his door and that we can play Rock Band in my room. I tried to explain that we were in the lounge first and entitled to its use, and that he could close his door. He tried to argue, at which point I said – believing that perhaps he had had too many drinks – “let’s talk about it tomorrow.”

Michael returned to his room, turned up the volume substantially, and propped his door again before coming out once more. He approached me, and he stared me down barely an inch from my face, and said along the lines of, “You can’t tell me when we’ll talk about it. Let’s talk about it now.” Michael was using a very belligerent, confrontational, and disrespectful tone, and every single person who witnessed the event (CC’d here) believe he was out of line. Even his roommate apologized the day after for their behavior and said that Michael had been out of line.

In that conversation, Michael continued to insist that I had no right to close his door. I apologized for doing so, and asked him politely to close his door. He did so and then left.

Now I will talk about events to which the others CC’d to this email cannot attest, as they occurred today, Saturday, September 20^th . However, I believe it concerns them very much, as they had all asked me throughout the day if I had talked to Michael about the events of the preceding night. In fact, most of those CC’d here simply attributed his behavior to being intoxicated; however, this was not the case.

In my two conversations with Michael today, he insisted that he was not drunk, that he stands by everything he said and did, and that he blamed me for the altercation. He insisted that I shouldn’t have closed his door, that he can have his door open whenever he wants, and that we should have played in my room, despite that the five of us had been there first and that the lounge is a common area to which all of us are entitled.

When I told Michael that everyone there thought he was out of line, he said “I don’t care what they think.” I asked him why he doesn’t care about what five of his floormates think, and he responded, “I don’t respect them.” In the second conversation I had with Michael that night, in the presence of his roommate (who was trying to moderate between us), he added that the people on the floor were “abnormal” and that we should “lighten up,” implying that we should party more, and re-emphasized that he doesn’t care what any of us think, and that he will always do what he wants when he wants.

I of course shared the conversations I had with Michael with my floormates who were there last night. Suffice it to say, that Michael believes that he can do whatever he wants no matter what, when, and where, with absolutely zero regard for the wishes and concerns of his floormates, makes the current living situation very tense. We are all neighbors, and we must all care for each other’s concerns.

I would like to emphasize that this is not a recurring problem; in fact, Michael’s actions last night were surprising and unexpected to each one of us. But his responses today suggest that this problem might recur.

Our hope is simply to have Michael recognize how he wronged us the night before, and that he cannot simply do as he pleases in a communal living situation. We will always be open to compromise when it comes to conflicting use of the floor and lounge space; however, both sides must be open to doing so, and Michael has refused to acknowledge this. We feel that if he does not recognize this, it will make the living situation more untenable.

Michael Wilner CMC '11 Gets Desperate, Censors Forum, Closes Off Comments Unilaterally

Forum Editor-in-Chief Michael A. Wilner CMC '11 has removed a comment that criticized his pending criminal assault charges from a Forum post describing the 5-C presidents' event. The commend read: "Ha. Wow, this event is so much different now that we know that Wilner was drunkenly punching girls before it went down."

Wilner has unilaterally proceeded to moderate all comments on the Forum, a power I'm told he lacks under ASCMC's constitution.

He has also removed commenting on The Forum's Facebook page. I know this because I wrote a comment that was removed. He also kicked me off of liking The Forum. (I later rejoined.)

Wilner moved quickly, less than fifteen minutes after I posted it, it was deleted, but not before I made a screen shot of the comment.

President Gann Suggests That Board of Trustees Had Problems With Her Being A Woman

President Gann in a recent interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education blamed sexism, not differences in vision, for disagreements amongst herself and the Board of Trustees.

The big difference is that men on their boards of trustees may be “not that accustomed to working with women leaders,” said Ms. Gann, of Claremont McKenna. “It was about my fourth year before they entrusted the college to me,” she said.

Then she proceeded to appoint board members that would be friendly to her.