18 CommentsIt looks like the controversy over Columbia’s efforts to prevent sexual assault is starting to have an impact on alumni giving. Calvin D Sun, a former President of Columbia College Young alumni and prominent donor, wrote a public Facebook post last Wednesday declaring:
If there are existing institutions in place that impede reporting of sexual violence on campus, then I as a John Jay donor, former President of the Columbia College Young Alumni and human being, will cease all alumni giving to my alma mater until this matter is addressed appropriately and absolutely.
Sun also calls on fellow alumni to cease their contributions. The post has over 1,000 likes.
It seems that Sun is not alone. Columbia’s Alumni Calling Center, which is responsible for reaching out to alumni to share news and solicit donations, distributed a flyer to student callers with a scripted response to questions about gender-based misconduct or Emma Sulkowicz’s art piece, as well as background information about her case. After parroting the “active steps” that have been undertaken, student callers are to complete a comment form “if necessary,” then continue their call as usual. “As I was saying…”
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18 Comments
@ughhhhhh Calvin Sun is NOT a “prominent donor”, despite what he probably told bwog. To a University that raises $6bn in 5 years, a “prominent donor” is someone who gives millions of dollars, which Calvin most certainly does not. what a blowhard.
@ehhhhh True, but he is considered one of Columbia’s Leadership Donors (a.k.a. one of the big dogs when it comes to giving). If more Leadership Donors take his example, then we’ll be out of millions of dollars, and then the university is screwed.
@Anonymous I’m just curious why/if Beog trusts this tipster (assuming that’s where this flyer came from). I find it nearly impossible to believe 1) that the Alumni office would get the name of the university it fucking raises money for wrong, and 2) that it would be printed on this hideous shade of green paper, when most memos like this are emailed around anyway.
@Anonymous *Bwog, not Beog, come on iPhone
@Anonymous the flyer is real, I work there too.
@CC 15 Yeah, I was wondering about that too.. my bet would be they hired some PR firm to handle the situation like other schools (see: yale, dartmouth, USC) have done.
As crazy as it is that an employee of “university of columbia” would get our name wrong, it seems even stupider that someone trying to fake this flyer would get it wrong haha.
@another call center employee Columbia’s fundraising is outsourced to a company called RuffaloCody — most of our fundraising materials come from them, not the university. These fliers weren’t meant to leave the call center, they’re just pinned up by each computer so that student callers can use the script when alumni say they don’t want to donate because of the way Columbia handles sexual assault on campus. There are a lot of things the university fucks up at the highest level, but just based on the way the call center works, its very unlikely that this script was approved by anyone notable.
For the record, the call center head and the student supervisors have been great about this. They’re not forcing us to apologize for the way the university acts and they all seem to be equally disapproving of the shitshow that is Columbia’s sexual violence judiciary process — they’re just trying to do their jobs. As fundraisers, this requires maximizing diplomacy rather than advocacy.
@work at the call center too I can also attest that this is a real flyer. Again, this isn’t something that’s leaving the call center or is a formal way to combat the issue of sexual assault. The student callers have a lot of scripts that we read in order to help us handle objections in an efficient and respectful way. We’ve been getting a lot of objections due to the sexual assault issues on campus, so these are just ways to help us get through the call smoothly and respond appropriately.
Regarding the “continue call as usual” bit: it’s difficult. The center director and the student supervisors and the callers all agree with the fact that the gender-based misconduct issues on campus need to be addressed, and I often empathize with alumni who are horrified. We all are. But callers still need to do their jobs, and Columbia still needs to raise money. Where do you think the money for scholarships and financial aid mostly comes from? Alumni gifts. Yes, Columbia has a lot of work to do as an institution, but callers still need to raise money in order to help current students. It’s a messy situation we’re in.
@I work there too I work there too, and this is exactly right.
@Caroline What do people think Columbia could have done. Columbia investigated, the police investigated: Once E.S. e discovered that police need actual facts, she decided that is was just too laborious for her. In a farcical interview with NY Mag, she attempts to give her reasoning for not pursuing charges against the rapist who so “destroyed her life”:
The last time we spoke you said you had filed a report with the NYPD and they were starting to investigate. What is the status of that?
It got transferred to the district attorney’s office, and I decided I didn’t want to pursue it any further because they told it me it would take nine months to a year to actually go to court, which would be after I graduated and probably wanting to erase all of my memories of Columbia from my brain anyway, so I decided not to pursue it.
You were also hoping to file a complaint with the police regarding how you were treated. What happened with that?
It got transferred to the district attorney’s office, and I decided I didn’t want to pursue it any further because they told it me it would take nine months to a year to actually go to court, which would be after I graduated and probably wanting to erase all of my memories of Columbia from my brain anyway, so I decided not to pursue it.
You were also hoping to file a complaint with the police regarding how you were treated. What happened with that?
I was contacted by an investigator who was really, really annoying to work with. He would call me randomly, and make me repeat everything that happened. He kept telling me I had to come into the station, and obviously I don’t want to deal with the police any more right now. It’s so disorganized, and it’s really upsetting to work with them at all.”
@Anonymous so fucking entitled. does she think people will just get imprisoned on a whim?
does she not understand that under the US constitution, individuals are “innocent until proven guilty?” Of course its going to take time to get something done about it… but I do empathize with her desire to have the NYC legal system bend to her whim. I feel the same way.
@CC 17 I agree that she can’t expect this man to be expelled. Too much time went by and there wasn’t enough evidence to properly punish him. All they have is her word and that isn’t enough so they let him off. Not unreasonable. The police would have done exactly the same thing.
But it’s important to realize that if she really feels unsafe and is being triggered by his presence, the university should at least set up something so that she can comfortably stay away from him, they can avoid seeing and bumping into each other, and she can navigate campus with a sigh of relief. Just because he was found innocent doesn’t mean she’s lying or that her feelings are invalid. She clearly feels unsafe and the university needs to address this.
@Caroline of course shed feels unsafe in his presence – not that she thinks that he would do anything to her. Can you imagine accusing someone for something he didn’t do, call him a serial rapist and you know it and he knows it, and the entire world knows it, and then, you have to keep bumping into him and, eventually, look at him in the eyes? You have to keep inventing an ever bigger lie to cover the previous one.
@Serpent So if someone felt unsafe around an African American or Muslim student who was not found guilty of any wrongdoing, should Columbia be required to place restrictions on said student to make the other students “feel safe”?
@Caroline Absolutely not, that is exactly my point!
@Anonymous Yes, actually. If there were multiple complaints of rape and sexual harassment against said African American and/or Muslim and I felt threatened enough to appeal the misconduct board verdict, I would hope the university would at the very least place a restraint on him to stay 100ft away so he does not harrass me in a class that I am in and he is not.
As a matter of fact, that student could be white or Asian or any other race too.
@ok University of Columbia
@CC '16 This is what Columbia means when they say they are working on real change. They work very hard to find new ways to brush rape under the rug