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Keene State College’s sexual harassment policy failed in a recent case and needs to change, President Stanley J. Yarosewick told a group of 21 students and staff who marched on his office Thursday afternoon after a campus forum on the issue.

The policy is ambiguous, legally confusing, allows too much lag time for reaction, and “I’m just saddened by the fact that the system did not work in this case,” he told the group. “We’re going to change some policies and procedures on this campus.”

In March, a male student wrote a female Keene State professor a derogatory, sexually charged letter — the case in question.

The case is still not resolved, the student is still enrolled at Keene State, and protesters say were outraged that, until Thursday, the administration did not publicly respond to campus concerns.

“Under the auspices of protecting the perpetrator’s rights, what we do is give out the sense on campus that these incidents are acceptable, that they are tolerated and if you do these things, you’ll get away with it,” said Mary-Ellen Fortini, director of sponsored programs at the college and one of the organizers of Thursday’s forum.

She and a handful of others organized the forum to protest not just the one case, but also how the administration handles — or fails to handle — such incidents, she said.

“We’re here today to have an open forum to confront sexual harassment, bigotry and hatred on this campus,” Fortini told the crowd of men and women that ballooned to more than 100 outside Rhodes Hall.

The catalyst

On April 4, the Keene State professor filed a report with police alleging that a month earlier, a male student gave her the letter after a classroom discussion about an article students were to have read.

In the letter, the student accuses the professor of humiliating him in class and calls her a four-letter expletive for vagina, asks if she loves him and makes other insults.

According to the report, the following ensued: The professor told the college about the letter, and the student was removed from the class and ordered not to contact her, among other punishments. The professor was unsatisfied with the sanctions the college imposed and went to police looking for legal action, but police determined the student hadn’t committed a crime.

The professor and the student declined to comment to The Sentinel, each saying through representatives that the case was not yet resolved.

The college does not comment on disciplinary action. However, several sources confirmed that this case prompted the forum and was the one referenced Thursday.

About the time the professor filed the police report, more than 50 faculty, staff and students sent letters of protest to the administration, decrying what they called an unacceptable response to the incident, said biology professor Karen Cangialosi, who helped organized the forum.

Administrators, however, didn’t respond, and at least 20 faculty members had at one time considered boycotting next week’s graduation in protest, she said Thursday.

At the forum, people stepped up to microphones to talk about sexual harassment, first haltingly, then passionately.

Over the last few weeks, the number of unresolved sexual harassment incidents they’ve heard about has blossomed, organizers said, from stories of inappropriate language in teacher evaluations to one student so frightened for her safety after repeated phone calls from another student, she had her mother sleep in her dorm room.

People often don’t know how to respond to sexual harassment: Not only is the college’s policy vague, but so is people’s understanding of sexual harassment, protestors said, and they called for more education on the subject.

Despite confusion, there is an ethical need to speak up before “this seeps all over the culture, all over the country (and) word gets around that people can be violent” without any consequences, said education professor Thomas J. Bassarear.

“There are obviously members of the administration that are incredibly concerned, not only about the incident, but the clicourt, associate vice president for academic affairs at the college, who was at the forum. “... It really does seem as if we’ve lost control of our community.”

Some questioned, though, the college’s response to the letter. A student caught smoking marijuana in a dorm faces serious charges, but students who use words that “(deliver) violence and ... (promise) more violence to come” are not dealt with seriously, said Liz Pacilio, a lecturer in English and women’s studies.

“Personally I’m afraid to be on campus with a student who would do something like that,” said a teary Michelle Emery, a senior psychology major. “What is Dr. Y’s response?”

She soon found out.

Getting answers

A group of students peeled off first to find Yarosewick, nicknamed “Dr. Y,” at a student presentation, then to lead a larger group across campus and up the narrow stairs to crowd his sunny office, grim-faced or bearing nervous smiles.

“We’re here because we’re outraged about the student who sent a professor a hate letter,” one student said, recounting the impassioned statements at the forum.

Yarosewick then launched into a specific list of failures in the college’s response to the incident.

He learned about it 26 days after it happened, he said: “too late, frankly.

“... My own personal feeling is in these types of situations, there should be immediate suspension,” he said, saying that sends a “very strong message” that sexual harassment is not tolerated on campus. “... It’s what I’m going to recommend.”

Also, “There should be a hearing within 48 hours and that didn’t happen,” he said.

Finally, there are conflicting appeal processes, Yarosewick said.

He said he would direct people to review not only what the college does in cases of sexual harassment, but the entire disciplinary process. Some changes could happen by fall, though a review of the whole process may take longer, he said.

Yarosewick retires June 30, but he said he would talk to new president Helen F. Giles-Gee about campus concerns and changes to the policy.

“It is so important that you have voiced so candidly your opinion on this issue,” he said.

Cangialosi said she thought Yarosewick was “making every honest attempt to say the system was flawed and needs to be addressed... I actually feel good about the outcome, and they will feel pressure to makes some changes.”

The Keene State protest mirrors a situation at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, where students have held a series of protests against sexual discrimination on campus. Most publicized was a magazine singling out a student in a sexually themed questionnaire.