Students at Trinity College have sent a letter to the Trinity College Board of Trustees informing the board of allegations against the Trinity College Office of the Dean of Students. The letter requests that the board investigate the Dean of Students Office on account of the allegations listed in the letter. Dated October 3, 2017, the letter was written by Leila Martin, Chair of the Trinity College Meeting (TCM), the college’s student government.
On September 25, the TCM passed a vote of no confidence in the Office of the Dean of Students with 209 in favour, seven against, and five abstaining. According to the letter, “it represents the largest TCM in history.”
The letter lists five allegations against the Office of the Dean of Students that Martin asks the Board of Trustees to investigate. The first allegation was that the Office of the Dean of Students “actively [put] a student leader, Bardia Monavari, in harm’s way by turning him over to the campus police for an event he was not involved in.”
The letter also claims that the Office of the Dean of Students made students “feel embarrassed/threatened” for seeking assistance regarding drug and alcohol abuse cases.
Amongst other allegations, the letter claims that the Dean’s office mismanaged and unilaterally altered the residence readmission committee, which resulted in a student returning to residence despite sexual assault allegations against him. It also claims that the sexual assault case involving Trinity College student Tamsyn Riddle was mishandled. The letter cited Riddle’s article, published in The Varsity, for members of the board of trustees to read.
“Each of these allegations alone should be enough to give us pause,” reads the letter. “Taken together, they shed light on an environment where many students, as illustrated by the 94.5% who voted for the vote of no confidence, no longer feel certain that the Office of the Dean of students will act with students’ best interests in mind.”
“It is distressing to think that students who come to Trinity reasonably expecting a positive university experience not only encounter traumatic events but then face a further barrier in the form of our own administration.”
Trinity College Dean of Students Kristen Moore, Assistant Dean of Students – Student Life Christine Cerrullo, and Assistant Dean of Students – Residence Life Adam Hogan were specifically given a vote of no confidence in the letter.
Neither, Moore, Cerrullo, Hogan, nor Martin responded to The Varsity’s requests for comment.
Trin Letter by Anonymous 8aORGW on Scribd
