For the Record

Dear Dr Steele,

It is with grave concern and a deeply heavy heart that I write this letter to you. My name is Anu Bhagwati. I am the Executive Director of Service Women's Action Network (SWAN), the nation's leading advocacy organization for military women and women veterans. I am also a former Marine Corps Captain.

I am writing because of a serious breach of ethics committed by the faculty and administration of the Columbia University School of Social Work against an Iraq war veteran, Sergeant First Class (SFC), Ret. Eli Painted Crow. Several years ago, SFC Painted Crow was interviewed by Professor Helen Benedict, who is on faculty at the Columbia University School of Journalism, for a narrative book titled "The Lonely Soldier." Professor Benedict interviewed and took advantage of SFC Painted Crow during a time of enormous mental and emotional turmoil for SFC Painted Crow. As a returning Iraq war veteran, SFC Painted Crow was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In fact, she has been officially designated as a 100% disabled veteran by the Veterans Benefits Administration for the psychological and physical wounds she sustained while serving her country.

Unfortunately, despite there being a plethora of scholarly publications and first-person accounts by women veterans themselves on the subject of women in the military, the School of Social Work used "The Lonely Soldier" as the single required text for this year's Capstone Project on women veterans, and then required the students to treat and evaluate SFC Painted Crow as a case study.

It is shocking that the School of Social Work officially stands by the declaration that it has not violated any ethical codes of the social work profession by evaluating a live human being without her consent.

SWAN communicated with the School of Social Work faculty about our concerns with the Capstone Project between the fall of 2010 and the present. One of our Board members who is on faculty at the School of Social Work reached out and expressed concern about the Capstone Project to the faculty as far back as October 2010, but her recommendation to consult with SFC Painted Crow about the project was ignored. Subsequently, one of our staff members who is also an MSW student at Columbia then reached out to the Capstone Committee in March 2011 to express her concerns with the ethical conduct of the project, and was also ignored. It wasn't two weeks ago that I found out that the Capstone Project was in fact proceeding as originally planned. I sent a personal note to the Committee expressing our concerns about the use of SFC Painted Crow as a subject of clinical analysis by several hundred MSW students, to which the Committee responded. The entire Committee met with me personally on Thursday, April 21st, at 11 AM, to discuss the project and, specifically, our objection to the use of SFC Painted Crow as a case study. During that meeting, the Capstone Committee openly confessed shame and embarrassment in not reaching out to SFC Painted Crow at the inception of the project, expressed their reservations about inviting Professor Benedict to participate on the final Capstone panel, and expressed their intentions to apologize to SFC Painted Crow as well as to the entire student body, and to invite SFC Painted Crow to NYC to publicly address the faculty and students and share her true life experiences. Since that meeting, the Capstone Committee has reneged on all of those intentions. Furthermore, the faculty have apparently misled Dean Takamura and the students about the content of e-mail exchanges and phone calls with SFC Painted Crow, and the content and manner of their interactions with SWAN.

Subsequently, Dean Takamura refused to meet with me last week, even though I advised her executive staff that this project was now damaging not only SFC Painted Crow but also the long-term reputation of the School of Social Work and Columbia University at large.

To rectify this escalating situation and bring closure to all parties involved, I urge you to immediately initiate an Investigative Review Board, or the investigative equivalent, into the School of Social Work's conduct of the Capstone Project. Furthermore, I urge you to evaluate the content and conduct of the veterans class currently being taught at the School of Social Work, to ensure that no ethical standards have been breached there as well.

 I also urge you to start a serious dialogue at the university to determine whether or not the various departments and schools have set strong enough diversity and equal opportunity policy guidelines with respect to the treatment of veterans on campus. I also urge a review of all university policies with respect to the use and research of veterans as human subjects by relevant schools and research programs, to include the School of Social Work and the Graduate School of Journalism.

I look forward to hearing from you, and would welcome the opportunity to meet with you in person

Very Sincerely,

Anu Bhagwati

Anuradha K. Bhagwati, MPP
Executive Director
Service Women's Action Network (SWAN)
P.O. Box 1758
New York, NY 10156-1758
www.servicewomen.org
www.yogaforvetsnyc.org
(work) 212-683-0015 x324
(cell) 347-401-2258

May 1,2010

To: kristendbush@gmail.com
Cc:

 Subject: Re: Untitled document

Dear fellow students,
As you may know, the capstone committee has scheduled a mandatory meeting with each capstone group individually tomorrow at different times throughout the day. We are disappointed that the capstone committee has chosen this forum rather than the more open forum requested and as planned for last Thursday.

Below are some sample questions that students have come up with that you may have too. Feel free to send these questions, along with your own, to the capstone committee by their deadline tonight at 7pm in order to get the full truth of the matter. We had hoped and continued to hope that the CUSSW administration address these important questions in a public forum in the spirit of collaboration, transparency, and to promote healing among the CUSSW community and for Ms. Eli PaintedCrow as well.

Getting all the info; what happened?

·         What was the entire process of selecting the capstone materials, contacting (or not contacting) people concerned (SWAN, Eli PaintedCrow), etc.?

·         Which of the student demands does the committee and deans plan on meeting?

Students passing capstone:

·         Will students who choose not to violate the NASW Code of Ethics and respect the dignity and worth of Ms.PaintedCrow by participating in capstone in alternative ways, still pass? What are all the conditions under which a student could not pass capstone?

·         What do you see as the role of social work students in addressing their concerns through organizing, as we are taught to do within this school?

·         What learning is already going on as students engage in various ways with the ethical issues of this assignment?

Supporting Eli PaintedCrow in Healing:

·         Have you apologized yet to Ms. PaintedCrow for the harm done to her? If not, what is the barrier of the capstone committee and deans in saying and showing "sorry" to a woman who has told the committee and students directly that she has been extremely harmed by this project?

·         When we graduate, what will be done to support Ms. PaintedCrow in healing?

Making sure the ethical violations in this capstone project don’t happen in future projects:

·         When we graduate, what will be done to ensure that the ethical violations present in this capstone project do not happen in future CUSSW projects?

·         Who owns the capstone materials produced? Who has rights to distribute or use these materials? What is the process for dissent or non-consent by the creators of the materials?

Reflecting on the process:

·         Why did you, the capstone committee, specifically choose a Native American woman's story? Was this intended to fill gaps in curriculum on Native Americans, people of color in general, and veterans? Was the CSWE re-accreditation a concern in your reasoning for crafting this assignment?

·         Given that we are taught that racism and white supremacy are real and pervasive forces in the US today, what is your understanding of how racism is active in this school? How has it informed this assignment?

·         From your professional and personal perspective, did you think that a journalistic account based on one interview with a woman experiencing multiple traumas is sufficient, ethical, or responsible to ask 400 students to write "assessments and interventions" for their culminating project? Knowing what you now know about Ms. PaintedCrow's stance on the capstone project, what would you have done differently?

·         Why was Helen Benedict chosen to speak at kickoff instead of Ms. PaintedCrow? If the concern was retraumatization for Ms. PaintedCrow, what are your thoughts about the social work value of self determination with regards to this situation?

·         Given that the assignment has been modified in some ways, do you acknowledge the ethical or moral wrongs that have taken place?

·         Does the fact that Ms. Benedict is a Columbia Professor and a close friend to many members of the school, cause a conflict of interest? impact the integrity of the actual project?

·         Why weren't actual first hand narratives considered for this project, knowing that there are available narratives supported by SWAN that could have been used?

RESPONSE TO ELI PAINTEDCROW

May 1, 2011

I am saddened to see the letter by Eli PaintedCrow about the use of my book by Columbia’s School of Social Work. I am also saddened that she is distressed. But there is some misinformation here that must be set straight.

Eli PaintedCrow willingly and graciously agreed to let me interview her for my book, The Lonely Soldier, because she wanted to teach the public what women go through in the military and at war. We spent hours talking over many months.

She saw and approved of every word in the book before it was published.

I am sorry to learn that she now finds it painful to be in the book, and I am sorry she is experiencing distress. But she chose to be a public figure years before I ever met her. I originally found her on YouTube, telling some of the same stories she tells in the book.

I wish Eli could feel proud instead of upset. Her story is inspiring and moving people to help and understand veterans better. That is why she told the story and why I wrote the book. Both of us wished to address injustices in the military and in war.

Columbia’s School of Social Work decided to use the book to teach its students how to better help veterans. I had nothing to do with that decision, but I applaud it. I wrote the book to educate others. Eli chose to be in the book to educate others. The school is using the book to educate others.

The school chose to concentrate on Eli's story to teach students some of the issues facing women veterans. This is simply normal teaching practice. You assign a book, and you concentrate on certain chapters in it.

Apparently, a student reached out to Eli to ask for permission to use her photograph in a project. I do not know how that student found her, or who that student is. I never, ever give contact information for anyone in my book without that person’s permission.

When the School of Social Work heard of Eli’s distress, they invited her to come speak, offered to pay her airfare, pay for two nights in a hotel and give her a speaker's fee. They have called her several times, spoken to her, and expressed great concern about her distress. She rejected this offer.

The book has helped to inspire a class action suit against the Pentagon on behalf of service-members who have been sexually assaulted in the military. It is being used to teach mental health professionals to help veterans more effectively. It has helped to expose racism and sexism in the military, and Eli has been a major part of conveying that message.

I will always be deeply grateful to her and the other soldiers in the book for agreeing to help me get the message out to the world that we need to do better by our female troops.

Helen Benedict

Associate Dean for Research and Academic Affairs, Allan Zweben

Director of Institutional Research, Ned Walsh

Assistant Director of Institutional Research, Jose Monterroso

Director of Communications, Jeannie, Hii

Capstone Committee

May 1, 2011

Re: The Case of Retired Sergeant Eli PaintedCrow

Dear Dean Takamura, Associate Dean Zweben, Ned Walsh, Jose Monterroso, Jeannie Hii, and members of the Capstone Committee at the School of Social Work, Columbia University

It has been brought to our attention that your school has required 400 students to engage in a mandatory research project (as part of their capstone project) that has entailed their assessment, diagnosis, and treatment plan for Eli PaintedCrow.

Eli PaintedCrow has publicly expressed her unequivocal objection to the use of her life-story in this research project.

- Eli PaintedCrow objects to the portrayal of her experience as narrated by Helen Benedict in The Lonely Soldier (2009). She has publicly and directly expressed this to Helen Benedict.

- The use of her image and “life-story” has been the cause of significant distress for Eli PaintedCrow. She has been placed under tremendous physical, mental, psychological and spiritual duress as a result, especially given the administration’s inadequate response to her objections to date.

- There is a significant contingent of students (approximately 200) at the School of Social Work who understand Eli PaintedCrow’s objection and question the ethics of continuing such an assignment. Under these circumstances, they have refused to this assignment. Simply removing her name from the assignment does not sufficiently remedy the situation.

- We understand that Eli PaintedCrow’s story was selected because of her identity as a Native-American woman, to increase the appearance of “diversity.” To use her life-experience against her will under such circumstances, using her legal name and her photograph, appears to be an extreme case of disregard for her dignity and her life-experience as a Native American and retired service woman.

Under such circumstances, we strongly urge you to intervene and cease the further use of Eli PaintedCrow’s life-story without her permission. Clearly, the reputation of the School of Social Work and its administration is at risk and will be under further scrutiny. We encourage you to make the proper remedy as soon as possible.

We the undersigned,

Setsu Shigematsu, Assistant Professor, Media & Cultural Studies Department, UCR

Associate Professor Michelle Raheja, Director, California Center for Native Nations& Dept. of English, UCR

Andrea Smith, Associate Professor, co-founder of Incite Women of Color Against Violence and Department of Media & Cultural Studies

Jodi Kim, Associate Professor, Ethnic Studies Department, UCR

Kelaulani Vaughn, graduate student, Ethnic Studies Department, UCR

From: Jane F
Sent: May 1, 2011 12:52 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Re: a new problem for women veterans being exploited at Columbia University asking for support

On quick glance she needs to contact the Human Resources Ethics Committee for Research at Columbia University. This is totally unethical as it is presented. Any research on a university campus must go through an Ethics Review Board. This is a very serious process. I can't believe that this could happen in the U.S.

Jane F, Ph.D.

April 30,2010

Hi Eli,

This is Susan from Texas, responding from my personal e-mail address. I am so sorry to hear about this, but I'm not surprised. Your status as a Native-American, female warrior, and activist make you exotic......you are unique and people want to know more. And whether you like it or not you are rising to icon status. Exploiting you gives that author a sense of power and accomplishment that she herself did not earn. I do advocate for veterans to take advantage of the GI Bill. But unfortuntly I am no fan of, or favorite of the "academics" currently making a living off of veterans in my area. They cringe every time I walk into the room, and I get the cold shoulder. It's like nothing I say could possibly be relevant or of value, because I don't hold an advanced degree. I get so tired of listening to their "theory based"analysis, of women veterans and what we need. NONE OF THEM ARE WOMEN VETS! They take a 3 hour course on military culture and all of sudden they are expects, and know more than the women that actually served. You have no idea how difficult it is for me to deal with these people and maintain a calm demenor.

Week before last, I had to take off a week from work because I was so exhausted and struggling to maintain my professional composure in my workplace. I sat at home for the whole week asking myself what is wrong with me. Why do I get so emotional over these things? Maybe I should change careers? But after some much needed rest, and little help from my friends, I decided I can handle it, and I'm not going stop advocating for vets, and hope you don't either. I know what you do is genuine, from the heart and not motivated by money. But as distasteful as it may be to you, I would suggest you consider having your pictures and work copyrighted to protect yourself. This probably won't be the last time someone will try to latch on to you to elevate themselves. I'm trying to find an organization that would expose veteran exploitations, like the one you are currently going through. I reached out to American Women Veterans, and Women Veterans of America but no response from either organization. If you have any suggestions please let me know. Take care.

Sincerely,

Susan

April 30,2010

Hau Eli,

I read your email with great interest. My recommendation is that you seek out the Ethics committee for consultation. Typically, there is a chairperson and that person may be able to an emergency meeting.

Your outlining the mental anguish this is causing you, especially if it relates to military trauma, will be a compelling argument. Also, this is timely as an article was just in the NY Times newspaper about the exploitation of the Havasupai by that university researcher who used tribal blood samples for other purposes not consented to by the tribal members involved. They ultimately won a large settlement but as you may know, ASU spent millions in trying to defend themselves, which was ultimately unsuccessful.

While your case is not a research informed consent case and the published book may exist within the public domain, the ethics involved is what will assist you. Especially, since this legacy of colleges and universities ongoing exploitation of American Indians is coming further into the public light.

Please remember that universities have formally stated value statements within their strategic plans. These can be located on their website. They also don't like negative press so if you can do a national news story with Indian Country Today, it will further highlight this socio-cultural injustice and unethical behavior.

I will have good thoughts and prayers as you journey forward.

Mitakuye oyasin,
Ho hecetu yelo,
Bruce

April 30,2010

Hey Eli,

I can only begin to imagine how completely awful this must feel. I am just happy to know you could be with Anu at such a horrible time. If someone is "studying" something that involves real people or movements, they should be accountable to those people and movements, their knowledge and experiences, and their actual lives. It's totally exploitative, but all too common for academics (especially white academics) to focus more on their own career advancement or institutional pressures than the people who might be involved in their studies, but that doesn't mean it's okay, and we don't have to accept it. In this case, it's even worse because you let the people at Columbia know that this harms you and still, it's continuing. Even without knowing more details of what they are doing, it's clear that this is a violation of your trust and a violation of you too.

I will definitely spread the word and let people know, but I'd also like to help and offer solidarity in other ways. If there is anything else you would like in terms of solidarity statements, actions, etc., please let me know. I'm cc-ing Tim because his Iowa email doesn't work anymore now that he lives up here in Montreal too. I know he will want to know too, and this way you can also have his new email address.

I hope, with Anu's help and support, you are taking super-good care of yourself right now. Being violated hurts, and the vulnerability is compounded by the fact that things didn't change after you bravely spoke up about how this affects you.

I think the answer to your question is yes, that is exactly what our schools are teaching. In general, our schools teach that actual suffering doesn't matter except insofar as it offers job opportunities for people to be the managers of suffering. It's especially bad that it's a Social Work program where this is happening, but I'm also not surprised. That is how sick and twisted it all is. Yet somehow there are people like Setsu and Dylan who hold onto a space to use it for other purposes.

If there is anything else beyond spreading the word that could provide some real support or solidarity now, just let me know.

Sent with a big hug and lots of love,

adrienne

It seems that we veterans in the process of putting our selves a vulnerable
positions in hope of creating a voice for women veterans have found ourselves in
yet another form of exploitation. I know find myself as the lab rat for 400
students who are to diagnose and provide treatment strategies as their final
project, (to include a poster of me), at Columbia University. Helen sold 400
books and allowed the committee to move forward in exploiting me at another
level that is so devastating and dehumanizing that I am in a survival mode as I
sit in my friends Anu's house wondering if I should cry, attack, or just
disappear. How can anyone live with the idea that 400 people have taken a
microscope to my life and shredded it to bits, without knowing who I am or
wondering how that knowledge will affect me. I have come to New York to try and
resolve this issue.

I hope to send a message that this will not be allowed in other places. there is
a movement of about half of the graduating students protesting the micro
analysis of the project be omitted per my request. the committee has neither
offered and apology nor have they made arrangements to contact me about this
situation. Dismissing me perhaps because I am not an academic and I am not
worthy of an apology, or any type of restitution for myself or the students.
Even the students get that this is morally unethical period. While the staff
continues to site the social work ethics and legal jargon of being able to
perpetuate me because i am seen as a public figure thus, gives them the right to
insist the students continue with the project even though the students feel they
cannot morally continue. Its just plain wrong period........

The dean has intervened and merely states that it is "unfortunate" that I have
been affected in this way. This coming from the Dept. of Social Work??? Is this
what our schools are teaching? I hope that those of you who are in academia and
in the helping field will recognize the pain associated with diagnosing and
treating a real person with a real picture attached as part of the project. Had
the staff thought it over they could have developed a composite of several
people and put together something that was anonymous and helpful to students.
Instead they dismiss that fact that it is wrong and support the author's
continued exploitation and false promises made by the author just to get me to
sign the dotted line. I am living my ancestor's life at this moment in betrayal
once again for trusting a non indian with my life.

If this is to go on in other universities I foresee some real damage to veterans
and fear the exploitation will need to some very negative consequences for all
to have to live with this lifetime. Those of you in the field of social work or
academia, i hope you will pass this message along.

Peace

Eli PaintedCrow

Advocate for soldiers
Advocate for Peace