The
Weekly
The University of Mary Washington Student Newspaper Serving the community since 1922
Ringer
VOLUME 95 | ISSUE 24
APRIL 21, 2022
“When the hearing process started, that was kind of the worst of all of it”: Adjudicating misconduct at UMW
JESS KIRBY Editor-in-Chief Early in the summer of 2017, Tirzah Rao was a rising sophomore working as an orientation leader and peer mentor when she reported to university administration that she had been physically and verbally assaulted by a coworker. She decided to report it because she felt unsafe and didn’t want to spend the rest of the summer with him. But the way the office handled the situation troubled Tirzah, who repeatedly felt she wasn’t given enough support to resolve the ongoing difficulties with him. At the time, the case was tried by the Judicial Review Board, which has since been renamed the Office of Student Conduct and Responsibility. Ultimately, the outcome led Tirzah to leave the school. Tirzah is speaking up about her case now because a recent decision involving an assault case has brought up similar issues regarding the process used by the Office of Student Conduct and Responsibility, and faculty members say they have brought up several flaws in the system that still have not been fixed. Specific details have been withheld regarding the recent case to respect the complainant’s wishes that she not be included in the story. “It is an incredibly daunting position to be in where you are facing Dr. Tuttle, everyone else involved in this process, all of these adults who are supposed to be there to help you, and you can just feel that they are not and you can tell that your best interests are not at heart,” said Tirzah. At the time of her assault, Tirzah was a pre-dental student and was in many of the same classes as the pre-
med student who she said assaulted her. Although they were no longer working together while the case unfolded, he often joined Tirzah’s study groups, and she felt he was trying to intimidate her. Even as Tirzah was dealing with the interpersonal stress, both from him and retaliation from his friends, she felt even more disempowered by the judicial process. “When the hearing process started, that was kind of the worst of all of it,” said Tirzah. She was not allowed to have anyone with her during the hearing, including her father, Anand Rao, the chair of the communication and digital studies department and director of the speaking intensive program at UMW. She said that she was questioned while the accused student was in the room, and he was allowed to ask questions too. Tirzah, however, was not present when he was being questioned, nor was she allowed to ask him questions. Tirzah also said that Raymond Tuttle, the director of the Office of Student Conduct and Responsibility, asked multiple times during the hearing if she was okay with the assault appearing on the accused student’s record since he was applying to medical school. She felt that she was indirectly being blamed for any harm the incident would cause him. “That’s not on me,” said Tirzah. “He’s the reason he wouldn’t get into med school. Yet that was brought up multiple times throughout my case, and I had a real problem with that. I was like, I’m also applying to go to these programs and seeking postgraduate education. What about the impact this has had on me, the fact that I don’t feel safe on campus anymore, the fact that I don’t feel comfortable here? That’s impacting me. That’s important too.”
Ultimately, the student was found not guilty. In order to find out the verdict, Tirzah was told she had to meet with Tuttle, and no one else was allowed in the room when he finally did tell her. Although the student had been told to stay away from Tirzah, he didn’t. “He kept pushing it because there was no real anything in place to prevent it,” she said.
“It is an incredibly daunting position to be in where you are facing Dr. Tuttle, everyone else involved in this process, all of these adults who are supposed to be there to help you, and you can just feel that they are not and you can tell that your best interests are not at heart. -Tirzah Rao Tirzah spoke to some of her professors, who understood her difficult position. But as she faced retaliation from the accused, she kept seeking support from administrators, which was fruitless. “They would meet with me, sure, but they did not offer any support that made me feel safe, and even with clear retaliation going on,” said Tirzah. “I was encouraged by faculty to transfer and leave because even people who had been at UMW for forever SEE OSCAR PAGE 7
SGA and petition push Students and faculty discuss destruction in Bucha, Ukraine scholarship policy change ALLY TINGEN Online Editor Political science and international relations classes at UMW continue to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war. Among the destruction in Ukraine lies the city of Bucha, plagued by violence from Russian military units. “The U.S. militaries and lots of other militaries take lots of precautions to try to limit the killing of civilian people during wartime,” said international relations Professor Jason Davidson. “Russians seem to have not been trying very hard, if at all. That in and of itself is problematic. But what happened in Bucha is its whole different category.” UMW students are taking part in these discussions both in and out of the classroom. “Inside of my classes before class starts, we’ve sometimes had small conversations about it,” said junior political science major Joey Zeldin. “Outside of class we’ve had a lot of discussions. It’s really scary to talk about. It’s daunting to see how many human rights violations are being actively
INSIDE THE
RINGER
News | 2
UMW Apartments face outage on April 18.
Professors and students discuss war crimes in the classroom. Mikhail Volkov / Unsplash
committed yet ignored by most of the world.” Zeldin hopes to do what he can to get involved from afar. “If the opportunity arises, I’d like to volunteer this summer in programs that help refugees from Ukraine get the care that they deserve and support efforts towards thwarting Russia’s dangerous and horrifying actions,” said Zeldin. Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, various investigations have uncovered brutal attempts by Russian forces to overcome Ukraine SEE WAR PAGE 7
Opinion | 3 Four is better than five: A push for a four day work week.
Maggie Mae young Staff Writer On April 4, senior political science major Kevin Connolly created a petition in protest of UMW’s policy stipulating that students must live on campus to keep certain scholarships. At time of publication, the petition has 268 signatures. “I moved off-campus because of a mold allergy and my scholarship was instantly cut in half,” said Connolly. “My story is not unique, dozens of students I have spoken to have each lost thousands of dollars.” Junior political science major and Student Government Association President Joey Zeldin explained that each scholarship has a different policy regarding housing.
Connolly’s petition for students to keep their scholarships is located on change.org. change.org
“Some scholarships are strictly merit-based awards, meaning that you receive them on the basis of your grades and merit, while others are given to students on the basis that they’ll live on campus,” he said. The housing requirements for each scholarship are located on the Scholar Manager
Life | 5
Cosmy Pellis addresses abstinence and sexual education.
website. “I have always thought the policy was unfair— why should students be forced to remain on campus?” he said. “What effect does that have on their academic merit? It felt like something needed to change, and I wanted to at least begin the conversation before my
SEE PETITION PAGE 2
Sports | 8
Men’s lacrosse lose their last home game.