Ms. PaintedCrow,

I'm so sorry I wasnt in touch yesterday. Yes, things are stressful here but moving! I will give you a call shortly.

Here's where we are:

After Tuesday's town hall, students compiled a list of demands and launched a massive outreach campaign to gain even further momentum.

The demands and survey results are as follows:

Issue an apology to Ms. PaintedCrow, both in writing and during the capstone finale on Friday, May 6th.

162

76%

Respect students' right to freely engage as we see fit in the capstone project, with ethics and healing in mind, knowing what they now know about the ethical dilemma regarding Ms. PaintedCrow's discontent with the project.

175

83%

Remove Ms. PaintedCrow's name, and any other identifying information or images, from any documents related to the capstone project.

186

88%

Provide convenient and comfortable airfare, hotel accomodations and per diem pay for Ms. PaintedCrow to be present at CUSSW May 2-6 (or based on her availability).

146

69%

Ask Ms. PaintedCrow: "What does repairing the harm done look like for you?" and use the available resources of CUSSW and larger Columbia univerity community to meet her stated needs.

167

79%

Honor the work that students have done to acknowledge and work through the ethical dilemmas related to the capstone project (including work to communicate with Ms. PaintedCrow, organize meetings and do outreach).

183

86%

Reimburse Ms. PaintedCrow for any healing tools she has employed due to the stress she endured regarding the capstone project (including, but not limited to, therapy sessions and medication).

113

53%

Reimburse Ms. PaintedCrow for pay lost during her time at CUSSW, May 2-6.

110

52%

As requested by Ms. PaintedCrow, via email after April 26th town hall, provide her with every student report submitted.


What are your thoughts on the above demands? Are there any that we should omit and/or that you have suggestions on?

During yesterday's outreach, Marion Riedel came up to students and told us that we were essentially creating a more polarized situation than we needed to, that we, the students, had allies in the Capstone Committee, and asked why we hadn't "just come up to her office and talk." Enraged by (but expecting) what felt like irrationality and disrespect, a number of us went to see her immediately after this encounter but did not find her in her office. We left a note on her door letting her know that we had responded to her "request" that students come speak to her (although we had put in this request both early in the game AND immediately after the town hall meeting.

Late last night, the faculty sent out a note to the Capstone students with the assignment modified (both the announcement and revised case guide are attached). The language in the announcement is horrendous. I am shocked (although not so shocked based on both my experience here and how this has been going) that this situation has been reduced to " We learned very recently that it appears that Ms. PaintedCrow has had a change of heart about her narrative as published in The Lonely Soldier (Benedict, 2009) and its public use."

The revised assignment does ask that students " removed her identifying information from the Capstone Project and ask that all Capstone Groups do the same in your final papers and presentations. Furthermore, we request that no Capstone paper, images of Capstone posters, or any other products related to the 2010-2011 Capstone Project be published in any manner (e.g., websites, Facebook pages, blogs, articles, etc)."

However, our main issue is that the micro section is still essentially taking place, there is NO mention of a serious breach of ethics or moral responsibility, and there is ZERO mention of the harm done to all of us, but most of all to you, in this. The Capstone Committee has called a forum tonight, at which point we plan on presenting the demands (as listed above - with any of your edits/modifications), in addition to grilling the committee about what they AREN'T doing.

I personally have also been dealing with a load of ignorance and negativity from fellow students who are critical of the organizing, because, like you articulated in your earlier letter to me, are not prepared to rock the boat and STAND UP. I am deeply saddened that these are my colleagues; these are the individuals who are going to be sent into the world to uplift communities, including mine and yours.

Ms. PaintedCrow, students are prepared to fly you out and host you in NYC. We have raised over $500 and can easily double that. Please tell us how we can bring you out here faster, with more ease, more comfortably, etc. Myself and student organizers are dying to meet you!