THE WTKR STORY
WHAT IS IT, AND WHAT DID IT REVEAL?
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Jon Stewart 2004 commencement address
THE WTKR BROADCAST OF FEBRUARY 17, 2017
Here are the two accounts of what happened to Dessler:
The TV report of February 17, 2017 falsifies the school's account and confirms Dessler's. In the school's account, there are no students who cannot find their professor. Dessler has argued since the suspension that the students cannot have been told the truth about him--he was a highly regarded professor and the students in the classes from which he was removed strongly argued against his removal.
Look at the students in this report. They are "upset" and "concerned." They find the situation "very upsetting." What is upsetting and what concerns them? That the school won't communicate with them. There is "little or no information" about a professor they like, a professor who disappeared 16 months earlier. The students want answers and no one "in the department they study in" will give them answers, leaving them so frustrated and upset that they have come to a TV station.
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Here are the two accounts of what happened to Dessler:
- Dessler's account is that everything in his work at the school was going well in the fall of 2015. He was teaching and also in in a leadership role with regard to student mental health and undergraduate research when he was forced off campus and subjected to a campaign of defamation, deprivation, isolation, and coercion, all meant to destroy his reputation and standing at W&M. This campaign used false arrest as its main weapon, and was intended to stop him from pursuing the mental health initiative.
- The school's account is that Dessler became unable to teach and behaved in a manner that scared students, so he had to be relieved. According to the university. Dessler was embittered by not being allowed to teach and out of frustration he he wrote threatening emails to College officials protesting its policies. The university had to arrest him several times for these actions, according to this account. The school claimed it was always focused on Dessler's overall well-being, and that its main concern was an alleged "underlying" mental health condition.
The TV report of February 17, 2017 falsifies the school's account and confirms Dessler's. In the school's account, there are no students who cannot find their professor. Dessler has argued since the suspension that the students cannot have been told the truth about him--he was a highly regarded professor and the students in the classes from which he was removed strongly argued against his removal.
Look at the students in this report. They are "upset" and "concerned." They find the situation "very upsetting." What is upsetting and what concerns them? That the school won't communicate with them. There is "little or no information" about a professor they like, a professor who disappeared 16 months earlier. The students want answers and no one "in the department they study in" will give them answers, leaving them so frustrated and upset that they have come to a TV station.
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This TV report makes absolutely clear that there is some kind of campaign against Dessler on the W&M campus. And it must be a frightening one. Dessler has been arrested. Could it be that the arrests are part of the campaign? That would mean that people on campus who supported him would be afraid of speaking up.
Note that the students had nothing to gain from going to WTKR. Zero. Except the knowledge that they did all they could if Dessler never returned. They are standing up for themselves here.
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What shows that Dessler's account is true and the school's story cannot be?
It's not just what the students say, though what they say makes it almost certain that Dessler's account is right.
It's what you see in the report. It is the obvious fear on campus. The students are hiding their faces. Only one will risk having his voice recorded.
Only by going on TV could the students make it clear Dessler's account was right. And their worry about their own safety can only lead one to ask: who are the students afraid of?
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Here is what the students drove to Hampton Roads to tell Kim Cung, at great risk to their welfare, sixteen months after Dessler's suspension:
(1) We wanted him as our teacher in Oct 2015. He was removed. We asked, "Why?" We were told, "An incident. There was an administrative intervention." That was it. We were very upset.
(2) Then we learned last summer he was arrested for threatening a department chair. Is this related to the incident? What was this incident? What was happening? There is no information and no communication about this professor at the College. When we ask, "Does he still work here," we are told, "Yes." And his bio remains on the website.
(3) Now we learn he has been arrested again. In trying to learn what was going on, one of us found out that Dessler was banned from campus since the week he was removed. He was also banned from contacting students. What is the reason for this ban? Why can't he write us? We are told only: an incident. An administrative intervention. He was removed from teaching, banned from campus, and banned from contacting us. We don't think this makes sense. He taught here for 32 years.
(4) He told his class in 2015 at the start of the semester that he has been seriously mentally ill before and he said he might be again, you never know. Everyone on campus knows about Prof Dessler. He is very kind. He genuinely cares for students. Everyone knows that. Look at ratemyprofessors.com. We have never heard anything bad about him. We have only heard good things about him. He suffers from a mental illness.
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IN HONOR OF THE TRIBE - INTERPRETIVE ACCOUNT OF JON STEWART'S COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS 2004
This was a special ceremony. The important part is at the end, when President Tim Sullivan hands Jon Stewart his Honorary Doctorate and says that no graduate is more deserving than Jon, and no awarding of this degree has reflected better on the College. The president's statement to close the ceremony is truly moving and historically unprecedented. I reproduce it here in honor of the W&M undergraduate.