Yesterday, I posted on The Marketing of Misinformation: UW-Whitewater’s Use of a Counterfeit ‘Campus Safety’ Study. Today, here is a look at some of the university administration’s talking points in response to long-standing acts of sexual harassment and assault on campus. (They’re from the new university chancellor’s recorded interview with a local newspaper.) From the video…
Assault Awareness & Prevention
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Crime, Trump
What Trump’s ‘Not My Type’ Defense Means
by JOHN ADAMS •
Writing at The Atlantic, Megan Garber explains The Real Meaning of Trump’s ‘She’s Not My Type’ Defense (‘The president, in attempting to downplay E. Jean Carroll’s rape allegation against him, isn’t talking about attraction. He’s talking about protection‘): There is, as always, a certain clarity to Trump’s cruelty. The president seems to understand, on some level,…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, City, University
A New Chancellor (and a Fitting Russian Proverb)
by JOHN ADAMS •
One reads this morning, as might have been expected, that the UW System regents have named Dr. Dwight C. Watson to be the new chancellor of UW-Whitewater. These recent years have seen two failed chancellors at UW-Whitewater. One hopes, genuinely and truly, that Dr. Watson, now Provost and Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, City, Culture, Negligence, Public Relations, Sexual Harassment, That Which Paved the Way, University, UW System
Beyond the Third Investigation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Some weeks ago, I promised readers a copy of the third investigation report into sexual harassment on the UW-Whitewater campus. That report is linked at the bottom of this post. Read merely alone, the report describes gross intentional misconduct, gross negligence and moral indifference about harassment and assault, as well as separate matters of managerial…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, City, Culture, Nepotism, Public Relations, Sexual Harassment, That Which Paved the Way, University, UW System
Third Investigation: ‘Up to 10 students, faculty report being harassed by former UW-Whitewater chancellor’s husband’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Originally posted 4.19.19. One reads today, in a Good Friday records release from the UW System, that Up to 10 students, faculty report being harassed by former UW-Whitewater chancellor’s husband: An investigation into the husband of former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper found that at least seven and up to 10 students or staff…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Equality, Harassment, Misconduct, University, UW System
Negative Equality is No Virtue
by JOHN ADAMS •
After UW-Whitewater’s chancellor, Beverly Kopper, resigned in December, faculty member JoEllen Burkholder objected that Kopper’s resignation would amount to a double standard: Some faculty members, such as women’s and gender studies professor JoEllen Burkholder, questioned the timing of Kopper’s resignation coming before the report’s release. Burkholder said she sees Kopper’s one-sentence resignation letter submitted to…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, City, Harassment, University
A Community Listening Session for a New Chancellor
by JOHN ADAMS •
UW-Whitewater, a public university in Whitewater, Wisconsin, now seeks a new chancellor, and the selection committee recently held a community listening session to request suggestions about a new campus administrator. (However useful an invitation to a community listening session might be, it’s worth noting that observation, reflection, and commentary answer to a different – and…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Crime, District Attorney, Josh Kaul
A Bit More on D.A. Chisholm, Investigations, and Election Results
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday I linked to a story from Annysa Johnson of the Journal Sentinel about Milwaukee D.A. John Chisholm’s proposed investigation: Milwaukee DA John Chisholm calls for a statewide review of Catholic Church abuse files. In an email last night, a reader sent along a detailed assessment of what an investigation would require, and I replied privately to…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, City, Crime, Democrats, Harassment, Law, Misconduct, Republicans, Trump, University, UW System
Immoral (and Unnecessary) Compromises
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a certain kind of Republican who rationalizes Trump’s many vices because, well, Trump has nominated some conservative judges. (Hugh Hewitt, who’ll rationalize anything to keep a job on the Salem talk radio network comes to mind. See It’s the Supreme Court, stupid.) If there’s an equivalent of this, it’s a certain kind of Democrat…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Harassment, Misconduct, Politics, Presidential race 2020
Sanders Says He Was ‘A Little Bit Busy’
by JOHN ADAMS •
Sydney Ember and Katie Benner report Sexism Claims from Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Run: Paid Less, Treated Worse: In February 2016, Giulianna Di Lauro, a Latino outreach strategist for Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential operation, complained to her supervisor that she had been harassed by a campaign surrogate whom she drove to events ahead of the Democratic primary…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, CDA, Charity, City, Corporate Welfare, Culture, Dogs, Economy, Education, Federal Government, Foxconn, Free Markets, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Police, Politics, School District, State Capitalism, State Government, University, UW System, WEDC, Wisconsin
The Broad Outlines of 2019
by JOHN ADAMS •
For many years, I would begin the year with predictions for the twelve months ahead. Events since 2016 have made predictions harder, but one can still discern some short-term developments for the city. These prospects, of course, form an online of topics to ponder, and about which to write (often requiring that one return to the…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, City, Crime, Culture, University
Elizabeth Bruenig Writes of Amber Wyatt
by JOHN ADAMS •
In September, Elizabeth Bruenig wrote about Amber Wyatt, a classmate she barely knew in 2006 when both attended a high school in Arlington, Texas. Wyatt was raped that year, and when she reported the crime, she found, in Bruenig’s words, that ‘few believed her. Her hometown turned against her. The authorities failed her.’ I first…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, Harassment, Misconduct, Nepotism, Sexual Harassment, University, UW System
Updated Post: Questions Concerning a Ban on the UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Husband After a Sexual Harassment Investigation
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve added a few additional questions to a post, Questions Concerning a Ban on the UW-Whitewater Chancellor’s Husband After a Sexual Harassment Investigation, first published here on 9.17.18. These questions are surely not comprehensive, and they are process & policy-oriented, so they implicate mainly the institutional response to individual injuries. As policy, however, the university or…
Assault Awareness & Prevention, City, Litigation, Nepotism, Sexual Harassment, That Which Paved the Way, University, UW System
The Limits of an Institutional Deal
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesterday, UW-Whitewater Chancellor Beverly Kopper announced that she was resigning her position as of 12.31.18. Later in the day, the UW System publicly announced that Kopper would be on leave at her former salary for eight months, and then in the fall have the option of returning to UW-Whitewater’s Psychology Department as a professor. See…