Yale Law School dean apologizes for missteps in party invite controversy - New Haven Register
NEW HAVEN — The Yale Law School made mistakes in how it addressed the “trap house” party incident and changes will be made, Dean Heather Gerken said in an email to the school .
“There are things the Law School administration should have done differently, and for that I take full responsibility,” Gerken said in her message.
The controversy arose from an invitation to a party “christening our very own (soon to be) world-renowned NALSA Trap House,” emailed by second-year student Trent Colbert. NALSA is the Native American Law Students Association.
When some students complained to the administration about the perceived racial overtones to the term “trap house,” which originally referred to a rundown house used to sell drugs, Associate Dean Ellen Cosgrove sent out an email that said, “We understand that an invitation was recently circulated containing pejorative and racist language. We condemn this in the strongest possible terms.”
The invitation also referred to the Federalist Society, which some students objected to because of its conservative, libertarian views. It also refered to Popeye’s chicken, among other food and drink.
Colbert said he also was called to a meeting with Gerken, Cosgrove and Yaseen Eldik, director of diversity, equity and inclusion, at which he said he felt pressured to apologize but refused.
Gerken asked Deputy Dean Ian Ayres to look into the issue, and her email this week was based on the results of his inquiry.
Gerken’s message listed ways in which future controversies will be handled, calling free speech “the touchstone of every academic community.”
“While we will offer students assistance in resolving disagreements … we will be clear that students must make their own decisions regarding their level of engagement,” Gerken wrote. “A forced conversation cannot achieve the goals the University’s process sets out.”
She addressed the first email from Cosgrove, saying, “I have spent every year of my deanship trying to foster an inclusive community. … The email message from administrators to members of the 2L class did not strike the appropriate balance between those two goals. I take responsibility for that failure, and I am sorry for it.”
Gerken also said, “I deeply regret” that there was an impression administrators acted “in a biased or unfair manner.”
Colbert said Thursday he wished Cosgrove and Eldik had weighed in, as they were most involved in the issue.
He said the one concrete action was the appointment of five faculty members to “address steps we can take as a community to create an environment in which people can disagree as well as our norms surrounding secretly recorded conversations and the sharing of private correspondence without permission.”
But he said the creation of the committee “seems like its doubling down; it seems kind of chilling.”
Colbert had recorded his meeting with Cosgrove and Eldik, and the issue made national news after someone shared his party invitation, originally sent to the NALSA listserv, with all second-year law students. Colbert identifies as part Cherokee.
Colbert added, “I do also appreciate at the very least the commitments to protected speech and academic freedom.”
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source: https://www.nhregister.com/news/article/Yale-Law-School-dean-apologizes-for-missteps-in-16634663.php
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