Here is the culture on campus that President Rowe seeks to change:
In an Interview published in The Virginia Gazette on December 17, 2019, President Rowe noted that in her 18-month tenure there has been "a significant uptick in awareness about the importance of due process" at W&M.
I was removed from my department and the university without input from students or deliberation by faculty, without charges being stated, and without being given a chance to defend myself or even appear on campus. Everyone knows this. At the same time, I was targeted for personal destruction by a campaign of malicious prosecution led by the Commonwealth's Attorney. Everyone knows this too. Because my innocence offered me no protection at the school, the innocent people I left behind are frightened and disoriented. They have turned inward to protect their lives as best they can. A silent but oppressive fear blankets the faculty community at William & Mary.
The careers of many professors on campus have been ruined by the faculty's knowing dereliction of duty in the face of my forced removal from campus. Simon Stow's career was once promising--he was awarded tenure on a short clock--but look at his professional life today. He was the only faculty member in the Government Department other than me who admitted to having a mental health disability. The manner in which I was targeted and destroyed left him in great fear, needless to say. Still, his confession is shocking, even horrifying, and it is both an embarrassment to the College and a source of shame for my former department.
The truth of my experiences and that of others who endured the policies of ostracism that destroyed so many lives at W&M between 2008 and 2018 must be explicitly acknowledged, discussed, and dealt with, or the College has no future.
This can be only good news. The suffering is over. No one will be punished.
David Dessler
December 19, 2019
I was removed from my department and the university without input from students or deliberation by faculty, without charges being stated, and without being given a chance to defend myself or even appear on campus. Everyone knows this. At the same time, I was targeted for personal destruction by a campaign of malicious prosecution led by the Commonwealth's Attorney. Everyone knows this too. Because my innocence offered me no protection at the school, the innocent people I left behind are frightened and disoriented. They have turned inward to protect their lives as best they can. A silent but oppressive fear blankets the faculty community at William & Mary.
The careers of many professors on campus have been ruined by the faculty's knowing dereliction of duty in the face of my forced removal from campus. Simon Stow's career was once promising--he was awarded tenure on a short clock--but look at his professional life today. He was the only faculty member in the Government Department other than me who admitted to having a mental health disability. The manner in which I was targeted and destroyed left him in great fear, needless to say. Still, his confession is shocking, even horrifying, and it is both an embarrassment to the College and a source of shame for my former department.
The truth of my experiences and that of others who endured the policies of ostracism that destroyed so many lives at W&M between 2008 and 2018 must be explicitly acknowledged, discussed, and dealt with, or the College has no future.
This can be only good news. The suffering is over. No one will be punished.
David Dessler
December 19, 2019
Comments by Rowe in VA Gazette article:
