Open Letter to the Syracuse University Community Against Institutionally-Shielded Sexual Harassment

April 5, 1995

I have lodged this formal grievance against Professor Stephen Dobyns, internationally known creative writer, with the Vice President for Human Resources and Affirmative Action Officer, Joan Carpenter. This incident has caused me tremendous embarrassment, public humiliation, continuing mental and physical anguish and, as a result, has significantly effected my ability to concentrate on my studies. However, the problem of sexual harassment cannot be reduced to my personal experience of it. This is not a strictly personal or local matter but it is a striking instance of the way defining “creative writer” as “celebrity playboy"—that is, “free to do anything"—has not only done personal damage to me but also to the entire Creative Writing Program, English Department, and University environment. I would like to take this time to clarify to members of the University community what I believe to he crucial issues involved in understanding this incident and to draw out what I see as its wider implications. I am absolutely outraged to find out from my fellow graduate students that Professor Dobyns' sexual intimidation and harassment of women on this campus is a long term pattern that has been over looked, sidestepped, and privatized by his fellow Creative Writing and English Department faculty members, and administrative officials in the University at large. I am furthermore outraged when I am told by Professor Tobias Wolff “We in Creative Writing are glad you are doing this so that we can now do something about this problem." In other words, the Creative Writing faculty has known for a long time that it has had an out of control professor on its staff, harassing its students, and has waited until I, a student, did something to help them 'solve the problem." I would say the Creative Writing Program is out of control. In their efforts to suppress and silence this problem I firmly believe that University faculty members and administrators, themselves intimidated by Professor Dobyns' celebrity status, have collaborated, unwittingly or not, in ensuring that the English Department in particular and the University at large is a space where the sexual harassment and intimidation of female students can continue without consequences. How is it that in a supposedly “student centered University” sexual harassment can continue without consequences?

Historically it is claimed that artists, writers, and poets are among the most sensitive and humane of people. Professor Dobyns himself stresses the necessity for his students to cultivate a “poetic sensibility” from which they perceive the world in a “deeper” more “subtle” and “nuanced” way than the “aver age person." How is it that such a classic sensibility could lend its sup port to such outrageous and threatening acts of sexual intimidation as those he has committed against me and, evidently, several other women? I have learned from many graduate students in this program that there is a general fear of reporting these incidents and a fear of becoming involved publicly in opposing the actions of Professor Dobyns in particular and sexual harassment in general. From this, I can only conclude that the S.U. English Department has become a space that fosters in its faculty and students a fear and deep hostility toward interest in and involvement with progressive social, cultural, and political concerns both inside the classroom and outside. These social concerns are rejected by many as “hampering” the “creativity” and “free expression” of the artist. The Creative Writing Program at Syracuse university overall seems to claim that socially progressive knowledges and social theory are not a necessary part of education. But the behavior of Professor Dobyns proves this absolutely wrong. When people can't explain their social relations to one another all they can do with their frustrations is explode. What then does “creativity” come to mean, but the unrestrained and reckless exercise of one's prejudices, hatred, and appetites. And, indeed, as several creative writing graduate students pointed out to me, Professor Dobyns has in the past defended his acts of sexual intimidation by representing himself as a “rebel” against the “repression” of “political correct ness." Yet, in the name of protecting “freedom” and advancing a progressive position “creativity” is redefined in order to legitimate the most reactionary, hostile, closed-minded, and violent sexist practices. Further, by elevating this to a disciplinary and artistic level as the “authentic” mark of creativity, Professor Dobyns and others who support this sentiment are preventing those students who might otherwise invest their creative energies in fighting reactionary practices. In short in the name of “freedom” this is producing an absolute pressure on students not to act. While Professor Dobyns (and others) may not like my notion of socially progressive knowledge, which he calls “Stalinist," the use of 'creativity” and “free expression” as an alibi for sexual harassment is hurting the struggle for social progress of all other concerned students. I believe that among the things that need to be done is the thorough rethinking of “creativity” in Creative Writing at Syracuse University to insure that there is a significant change in the climate of thinking about social issues.

I made this formal grievance public because first and foremost sexual harassment is a matter of public concern. Sexual harassment does not simply occur because of the failures of a particular individual to live up to the standards of a democratic society. It is a manifestation of the fact that we do not live in a democratic society to begin with. In other words, the sexual harassment of one individual by another is part of a larger system of institutionalized sexism that permeates all levels of social being in the workplace and beyond, connected ultimately with economic social injustice. One of the key factors in helping to legitimate this system is through the suppression of both the knowledge of specific instances of sexual harassment when they arise and the social knowledges that can enable students to explain what makes this harassment possible and how to work to stop it. On one level the University is interested in suppressing what it regards as “bad publicity” about one of its “celebrity” professors. Yet on another deeper level these suppressions are exactly what is harmful to women trying to fight against a systematic sexism. With this in mind, the most important reason for making this issue public is to open up a space for other women to file formal complaints with the Affirmative Action Office if they have been sexually harassed by Professor Dobyns or any other employee or student of the University. I want to publicly encourage those women to come forward. Further, faculty members and administrators at all levels must be willing to respond to this particular case as a part of a much wider problem. What you do to respond to this case will be telling all students directly what the University is really willing to do to end sexual harassment—whether it is committed in practice or simply paying lip service.

Sincerely,


Jennifer Cotter
Graduate Student
Department of English
Syracuse University