Of all the "Odyssey" articles, this is probably the hardest one I had to write. A hurricane has arrived at Vassar, and I’m going in. A hurricane in the form of campus administrators destroying the American Constitution. And I’m not even speaking metaphorically, I mean they literally put a physical copy of the Constitution in the shredder, page by page.
The highly edited video, which surfaced on YouTube, shows an undercover reporter for a conservative news outlet approaching the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Coordinator, Kelly Grab (pictured below). The reporter, posing as a Vassar student, showed Grab a copy of the Constitution that she had supposedly acquired on campus and said it was a “trigger” for her, causing her distress and discomfort. Grab comforted the student by shredding the document, which was caught on a hidden camera. You can see the video in its entirety here, and it should be noted that Grab declined to be interviewed for this article.
I asked to interview Vassar president Catherine Hill, to ask her about the scandal. She declined, but she did point me to a letter she wrote to Vassar staff, in which she responded saying:
“It is clear that the impersonator was attempting to entrap members of our staff whose responsibilities include providing an unbiased, empathetic response to students who express being in distress and a referral to other appropriate resources on campus. Our administrators responded with the integrity and skill they apply to similar reports of students in distress, making sure that students are aware of the multiple support systems available to them. It is unacceptable that someone would take advantage of our administrators’ openness in such a dishonest and fraudulent way.”
She also added in a separate email that “I think [the incident] has led to some interesting discussions on campus, including about the unacceptable nature of such tactics.” There have been discussions on what happened, but not many on campus, because most students believe that Grab did nothing wrong and the video has been taken out of context. Much more interesting discussions are happening on the marvelous world we call the Internet, in the comment sections of news websites that have reported the incident (because of course that’s where the discussions would happen).
I also interviewed Assistant Dean and Head of the Office of Residential Life, Luis Inoa (pictured below). He, like everyone at Vassar, maintains that the video was taken out of context and that Kelly Grab did nothing wrong.
"My immediate reaction," he said, "was concern for Kelly and her well-being." He also added "this is not an issue and should not be treated as such." You can hear the interview in its entirety here.
Now, what do I think? That’s a little more complicated. Whatever your views on what I’m calling Constitutiongate are, it’s undeniable that a college administrator’s job is to make sure a student feels safe and at home. College is a scary place, I knew that the minute I arrived on campus as a freshman, and people can get triggered by loads of different things. It was Grab’s duty not just as an educator, but also as a decent human being, to be non-judgmental and not react with a “WTF is wrong with you.” To her credit, she didn’t know that she was being filmed by a horrible organization trying to frame Vassar to be a horrible, horrible place of horribleness. She did her job.
