Chair of Philosophy Department to Students and Faculty on Pessin Post, March 5

 

March 5, 145 pm

To: philosophy majors/minors/philosophy dept

Responding to Pessin’s email to majors/minors

Subj: Our commitment to inclusivity

Dear philosophers,

This has been an incredibly difficult week. Larry Vogel, Kristin Pfefferkorn, Simon Feldman and Derek Turner have had intense ongoing discussions about how we as a department might respond to Professor Pessin’s Facebook post, to the letters to the editor in the College Voice, and to the response to those letters that Professor Pessin shared with the department yesterday.  We will continue that conversation over break, and we may make a more public statement as a department once Prof. Pessin has had the chance to share his own take on things with the broader campus community.

But I wanted to write to you all now … as an ordinary member of our philosophical community here at Connecticut College.  You know I care deeply about the department and about all of you.  And there are a few things I want to say. These are my personal views, and I am not speaking here for the department, or for Professors Vogel, Feldman, or Pfefferkorn.

First, I hope that all students–including those who were moved to speak out about Prof. Pessin’s Facebook post–feel welcome in our classes and at our department events.  I feel very strongly that the students who have spoken out are not the problem, and should not be made to feel that they are the problem.

Second, I feel that both Prof. Pessin’s original Facebook post and the response to the Voice articles that he shared with the department yesterday are inconsistent with the kind of inclusivity that I, personally, want for our department.

Third, I really hope that all of us will make an effort to participate in the events planned for after spring break.  I hope that we will have a strong departmental presence at those events, and that we will, as a group, reaffirm our department’s commitment to inclusivity.

Fourth, please know that my door is always open, and that I am willing to discuss these difficult issues with any of you, even if you disagree with what I have shared here.

Thank you,

A.