WHERE WE STAND NOW
by former government professor David Dessler
December 15, 2019
As we approach the end of 2019, the seven arrests are water under the bridge. They are no longer an issue. I will never be arrested or threatened with arrest again. No other students, faculty, or staff at W&M will be arrested. That era of College history is over. No one is looking back.
No one involved in my arrests is going to face legal or disciplinary action. I am not asking for such action, and the College has no interest in carrying out any such action if the cause of justice does not require it. I was arrested seven times, but my only concern has been to make clear that I did nothing wrong and the wrongdoing was entirely on the side of those arresting me. These points are absolutely clear and no one contests them. If one thinks this is not a good ending for me, my only point is that my situation--and the President's, and the College's--cannot be improved by remedial or corrective action.
Similarly, no one involved in my removal from campus, my termination, my loss of pay and benefits, the blocking and banning of emails to students, the policies to keep me off the College servers, off campus, and out of Williamsburg will face investigation or sanction. The lawsuit settled in April 2018 showed clearly that these measures were illegal, unconstitutional, and morally repugnant. These conclusions were, of course, already clear in October 2016, as records of Faculty Assembly discussions and actions show. It is for this reason that the College could not require a non-disclosure agreement in the lawsuit I filed.
The purpose of arresting me was to intimidate me, silence me, and make me disappear by destroying my standing and reputation in the William & Mary community. Since I now have proven my loyalty to the current President and Provost, I have no interest in actions or deliberations that revisit the past. I am not asking for anything I might have left behind--including lost pay. I am requesting a clean break and the opportunity to help others at William & Mary transform the College into President Rowe's vision of the Alma Mater of the Nation. I am confident President Rowe will value the contribution I can make, even if others contribute much more.
I would also like the opportunity to further advance the rights and interests of the students at William & Mary, particularly the undergraduates. After I was pushed off campus by the use of force in October 2015, I never dropped the important projects I had been assigned the year I was President of the Faculty Assembly. I never gave up on the idea of coming back, except for a brief, extremely bleak, period in January and February of 2018. Otherwise I have never doubted--not for an instant--that I would win.
I not only kept old projects but expanded them and added new ones and shaped them to fit the new administration's vision. I believe W&M students will want me to continue these projects, provided I can assure them that I deserve their confidence and trust. I am not requesting to be permitted to do any work that is not welcome and valued by the College community (in precisely the way my governance work was welcome and valued from the mid-1990s through my Assembly presidency in 2015).
Nothing that I am asking to do undercuts, endangers, marginalizes, or diminishes others. Indeed, what I want to do will empower others. The scenarios I contemplate are win-win. My record of governance at W&M over the last twenty years proves I can be effective in just this kind of work.
It's time to build a bright future for William & Mary, according to President Rowe's ambitious vision, starting now. See below, in a single screenshot, how things have already changed!
No one involved in my arrests is going to face legal or disciplinary action. I am not asking for such action, and the College has no interest in carrying out any such action if the cause of justice does not require it. I was arrested seven times, but my only concern has been to make clear that I did nothing wrong and the wrongdoing was entirely on the side of those arresting me. These points are absolutely clear and no one contests them. If one thinks this is not a good ending for me, my only point is that my situation--and the President's, and the College's--cannot be improved by remedial or corrective action.
Similarly, no one involved in my removal from campus, my termination, my loss of pay and benefits, the blocking and banning of emails to students, the policies to keep me off the College servers, off campus, and out of Williamsburg will face investigation or sanction. The lawsuit settled in April 2018 showed clearly that these measures were illegal, unconstitutional, and morally repugnant. These conclusions were, of course, already clear in October 2016, as records of Faculty Assembly discussions and actions show. It is for this reason that the College could not require a non-disclosure agreement in the lawsuit I filed.
The purpose of arresting me was to intimidate me, silence me, and make me disappear by destroying my standing and reputation in the William & Mary community. Since I now have proven my loyalty to the current President and Provost, I have no interest in actions or deliberations that revisit the past. I am not asking for anything I might have left behind--including lost pay. I am requesting a clean break and the opportunity to help others at William & Mary transform the College into President Rowe's vision of the Alma Mater of the Nation. I am confident President Rowe will value the contribution I can make, even if others contribute much more.
I would also like the opportunity to further advance the rights and interests of the students at William & Mary, particularly the undergraduates. After I was pushed off campus by the use of force in October 2015, I never dropped the important projects I had been assigned the year I was President of the Faculty Assembly. I never gave up on the idea of coming back, except for a brief, extremely bleak, period in January and February of 2018. Otherwise I have never doubted--not for an instant--that I would win.
I not only kept old projects but expanded them and added new ones and shaped them to fit the new administration's vision. I believe W&M students will want me to continue these projects, provided I can assure them that I deserve their confidence and trust. I am not requesting to be permitted to do any work that is not welcome and valued by the College community (in precisely the way my governance work was welcome and valued from the mid-1990s through my Assembly presidency in 2015).
Nothing that I am asking to do undercuts, endangers, marginalizes, or diminishes others. Indeed, what I want to do will empower others. The scenarios I contemplate are win-win. My record of governance at W&M over the last twenty years proves I can be effective in just this kind of work.
It's time to build a bright future for William & Mary, according to President Rowe's ambitious vision, starting now. See below, in a single screenshot, how things have already changed!
KATHERINE A. ROWE'S
MULTICULTURAL WILLIAM & MARY
