Feb.

9, 2018

Dear Alison Flowers, Meribah Knight, Kalyn Belsha, Olivia Pera, Suyeon
Son, Lorraine Ma, Yana Kunichoff, Natalie Krebs, Lauryn Schroeder,
and Fariba Pajooh:

As faculty members at Medill we’d like to respond to your public letter to

our dean concerning the treatment you received in the course of study,
or employment, in our School.

“It’s time you heard us,” you wrote. “It’s time you listened.”

Among other things, we’d like you to know:

(1) We hear you.

(2) We’re listening.

(3) And we’re committed to doing our part, as teachers, in a sustained

effort to make changes that will ensure no student or employee
experiences abusive treatment, sexual misconduct, or discriminatory
behavior.

This is a teaching, learning, and research institution, and your courage in

discussing deeply troubling experiences produces a profound obligation
for us. It will test our capacity to learn, reflect deeply, and change.

It may not be visible to you yet, but the allegations you made shook
many of us to the core. In hallways, in classrooms, in meetings among
faculty, we have begun a period of profound reflection on the issues
you’ve raised.
We are a group of tenured faculty members who found ourselves in
conversation yesterday, and decided to try to capture, for you, some
sense of the feeling in the room. We know these are views shared widely
by many caring colleagues and staff members.

Others, in administrative positions and Northwestern's Office of Equity,

have important roles to play in the new investigation just announced. We
fully support their efforts.

As faculty members, we also clearly have plenty of urgent work to do.

This includes the simple step of making something quite clear: We

respect you, and express our deep personal regret for any harm
suffered.

We do hear you.

We’ll continue to listen.

In conversation with you, other alumni, current students, and our

colleagues, we promise to search for ways to help provide a safer,
healthier environment free of any form of predation or bullying.

Sincerely,

Douglas Foster, Rachel Davis Mersey, Frank Mulhern, Ashlee

Humphreys, David Abrahamson, Donna Leff, Jack Doppelt, Patty Loew,
Vijay Viswanathan, Michelle F. Weinberger, Owen Youngman, Brent
Huffman, Christopher Benson, Edward Malthouse, and Martin Block