Simply put: On the confidentiality agreements, we went too far.
When we assembled the framework for our Safe Space Coalition to address sexual misconduct on Delaware State University campuses, it became clear that the hard, but necessary, discussions would entail the examination of sensitive information. We could not make students full partners in the process without granting them access to that information, and transparency has been a key operating principle of this effort.
I, along with my senior advisors, initially determined that everyone working on this coalition — faculty, staff, and students alike — should be bound by our normal Confidentiality Policy in order to protect personal information about survivor stories. I agreed largely because I would not want highly sensitive information to be shared inappropriately or leaked in social and traditional media outlets without the consent of survivors themselves. The commitment to the privacy of survivors was reinforced after the town hall I held with the students in January. They deserve to share their stories without fear of public comment or retribution.
But FIRE — the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression — and others, including the press, are also correct that we could have better tailored our message. Our intention was to honor and respect survivors’ privacy; we never intended to silence debate or comment. In fact, since the January protest, we have been open and transparent in our communication, outlining our near-term strategies — convening two public report outs, one to the University and one in a parent forum open to all — developing a Safe Space Coalition landing page at www.desu.edu/ssc easily accessible to the general public, and continuing to commit to monthly report outs on the coalition’s work. In fact, on Friday, March 17, we announced the April 25 convening of a public Safe Space conference to talk specifically about sexual assault awareness and education.
Earlier:National free-speech watchdog, ACLU pen letters to Delaware State condemning student NDAs
Our view:Enough with free-speech limits at Delaware State. President Allen, please fix it
I was resolute at the start of this process that instead of writing a memo in the moment and walking away, I wanted the campus community to lean in. Across the higher education space, 1 in 4 women report incidences of sexual assault. We also know that such instances are underreported and not just limited to heterosexual interactions.
Nonetheless, the responsibility for the confidentiality agreements is mine.
Our students are the great-grandchildren of the young men who came to Delaware State College at the beginning of World War II to learn to fly so that they could join the Tuskegee Airmen to fight for their country despite segregation and prejudice. Some of them never came home.
They are the grandchildren of the students who led sit-ins at local diners against Jim Crow, and who marched fearlessly in 1968 to protest both the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and adverse conditions on campus. They did not retreat when Delaware’s governor ordered in the State Police and National Guard, or even when the college expelled several student leaders.
They are the peers of those students who took peacefully to the streets a few years back to protest the violent deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
They are the fellow students of the student-athletes who, not a quite a year ago, showed poise and courage in the face of an unconstitutional, race-based stop and search in south Georgia.
They are, in short, young people who have learned from the history that our faculty has taught them that Frederick Douglass was right: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.”
They deserve our unwavering support in the face of adversity and if we want them to be a part of the solutions to the University’s most pressing concerns, they need to know that such a process is clear and transparent.
So where do we go from here?
I have informed the Board of Trustees that the University will be dropping the requirement for a confidentiality agreement to participate in the Safe Space Coalition. The onus of ensuring that sensitive material is handled correctly falls on the leaders I have assigned to these working groups, who will need to build an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect with their student collaborators.
This is not going to be easy or pretty. There are raw truths to be examined on all sides. Leaders make decisions, and therefore they also make mistakes. The leaders I admire own up to their mistakes and fix them. That’s who I aspire to be, and the example I want to set for our students and our community.
I know we won’t be right all the time, but we’re still leaning in.
Tony Allen is president of Delaware State Univerisity.
