Date: Thu, 05 May 92 18:15:27 From: To: stopit Subject: I'm being harrassed! I find the anti-harrasment poster about to be put in Athena clusters to be offensive. I have carefully considered the four questions: - Did the incident actually take place? Yes. See MIT Policies & Procedures, Section 3.16. - Did it cause stress that affected your ability, or the ability of others, to work or study? Yes. The existence of vague, threatening policies that can be unfairly applied by the whim of a single administrator, with no precedent to guide him/her and no method of appeal, causes me a great deal of stress. - Was it unwelcome behavior? Yes. MIT did not warn me in its acceptance letter that such irrational policies would exist. - Would a reasonable person of your gender/race/religion subjected to this behavior find it unacceptable? Absolutely. All reasonable people, of any gender, race, or religion, find the current harrasment policy unacceptable and offensive. Certainly, a real problem exists. The current policy attempts to solve it by instilling fear and silence in the MIT community, instead of setting forth a coherent system of guidelines by which actions can be judged and punished. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 21 May 92 15:57:35 From: gjackson@MIT.EDU (Gregory A Jackson) To: Subject: Your mail to stopit@mit.edu Cc: keyser@MIT.EDU, mrowe@MIT.EDU, cgwm@MIT.EDU You wrote to stopit@mit.edu (a mailing list for reporting incidents of possible harassment, which is read by several senior Information Systems managers) about the posters Information Systems recently placed in Athena clusters. You asserted that the posters themselves constitute harassment. Our motivation in placing the posters in the clusters was to encourage people who think they may be targets of harassment to use the resources available at MIT in deciding how to handle a situation and to point them towards these MIT resources. The posters reiterate MIT policy, which is that "harassment of any kind is unacceptable at MIT and in conflict with the interests and policies of the Institute." Stating policy does not, in itself, constitute harassment in any sense that requires administrative action from Athena or Information Systems. Your mail makes it clear that you disagree with the current statement and implementation of MIT's harassment policy, finding that it constrains your ability to speak and act as you wish. The current policy emerged from extensive discussion within the MIT community. It attempts to balance the diverse interests of different groups and individuals at MIT, and to recognize that with rights come responsibilities. The balancing of interests inevitably leads to constraints on individuals; such, often, is the nature of social contracts. If you would like to understand better how MIT's harassment policy balances diverse interests, or, even better, to suggest ways that the policy might be improved in this regard, then I am sure that Professor S. Jay Keyser, the Associate Provost for Institute Life, will be happy to hear your ideas and see that they are reflected in policy debate. Alternatively, you might want to speak with either Mary Rowe or Clarence Williams, who are Special Assistants to the President. Gregory A Jackson Director of Academic Computing Copies: S.J. Keyser M.P. Rowe C.G. Williams