A wave of controversy erupted Thursday afternoon following the announcement that a writing professor’s memoir assignment was being canceled by the Boston University College of Communication administration in light of complaints regarding the nature of the prompt.
Before spring break, BU lecturer Jay Atkinson called upon his CO201 classes to write a narrative detailing experiences in relation to either the #MeToo movement or LGBTQ issues, which made some students uncomfortable, wrote Ryan Thurston, COM Title IX coordinator, to students in an email that was sent to Atkinson’s two classes.
Atkinson declined to comment until after a resolution has been reached on the matter.
Yet the confusion surrounding the cancelation and supposed ongoing investigation is blowing the incident out of proportion, said COM associate dean Dustin Supa.
“There’s not an active Title IX investigation,” he said. “No one is being punished for anything right now. That is clearly not out there — apparently the rumor mill is going a little bit crazy.”
The rumors — including Atkinson’s students being mandated to turn in their memoirs for analysis by COM and the notion that he is facing repercussions for assigning the article — are false, Supa said.
Rather, the administration’s response to the memoir, Supa explained, is simply in the interest of prioritizing the physical and emotional well-being of the students involved. Staff looking into the matter wanted to provide any student affected with an avenue to turn in their work and receive support if needed.
“We certainly wouldn’t want people to feel as though their personal experiences are being graded,” Supa said.
Some of Atkinson’s students, such as COM freshman Claudia Rosado, did feel as though a line had been crossed.
In years past, the memoir assignment that is a staple of CO201 was more general, where students could report on any experience they desired, Rosado said. But this year, Atkinson decided to narrow it down to either the #MeToo movement or LGBTQ issues for “newsworthiness.”
The memoir had to cover a personal story either reacting to an event falling under one of the two topics, or detailing their own individual experiences, Rosado said.
Upon hearing this, Rosado said, she was immediately uneasy.
Like the majority of the students in her class, Rosado said, she ended up recounting an experience of sexual assault.
“You couldn’t really tell anyone else’s story,” Rosado said. “You kind of had to tell your own, which I get is the point of the assignment … but at the same time it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, let me just interview this other person who would be so willing to talk and open to tell me his story’ [but instead] ‘OK, let me relive this awful experience that I did not want to think about.’”
Although the class appeared to bond over a collective sharing of their “darkest secrets,” Rosado said, it was uncomfortable to not only recount the experience to a professional — a requirement — but also to engage in the editing process in general.
“[Atkinson] basically didn’t see anything wrong — not wrong with what had happened — but like, he wasn’t treating it as if it was a hard thing that I had gone through,” she said. “I had to go into office hours and be like, ‘This is what this kid did, and I don’t really know how to fix my first paragraph.’”
Another student in the class, COM freshman Allie Antonevich, said that while both topics — particularly the #MeToo movement — are important points of discussion, being required to write about either one for an assignment was not ideal.
“Whether it’s through a forum or talking with a therapist, I think there are other ways that women can sort of talk about sexual assault,” Antonevich said. “At least for me, with this assignment, to sort of feel like I’m being graded off of a personal narrative about trauma was difficult for me.”
Instead of being limited in scope, to have other newsworthy, less personal topics to choose from, such as gun control or immigration issues, would have been preferable, Antonevich said.
But some, like COM freshman Madison Duddy, who visited Thurston’s office Friday afternoon with a group of peers to discuss the incident and possible implications, said the matter is a huge misunderstanding and that Atkinson did nothing wrong.
The email noting the administration’s decision to cancel the assignment came as a shock and stirred some strong emotions, Duddy said.
When the group spoke with Thurston, Duddy said they learned that a compromise for those who wanted their memoirs graded, and those who did not, may be reached.
Instead of immediately jumping to action, Duddy said the administration should have spoken with students and gathered a general consensus first.
Throughout the entire process, Duddy said Atkinson was respectful of every student in the class and clearly outlined that if anyone had concerns or did not feel comfortable sharing their experience, they could work together during his office hours.
“[Students] didn’t have to write about sexual assault,” she said. “They had the choice to write about LGBTQ. Even though it was limited, it really wasn’t. If they felt like they had to, I’m sorry that they might have misunderstood the assignment.”
Duddy said she personally found the experience empowering and noted that Atkinson shared with the class the fact that he has a background of helping students who faced sexual assault issues.
“If anything happened to me, I would definitely go to him,” she said. “You can just kind of talk to him — like he’s a family member or a friend.”
Isaac Schorr, a COM freshman in Atkinson’s class, said he’s never seen a better dialogue emerge in class as a result of the assignment, and that he would fiercely advocate for Atkinson should he face consequences.
“I feel like students would line outside of COM with pitchforks [in support of Atkinson],” he said. “I’d actually advocate for pitchforks on this one.”
Colby Bruno, an attorney specializing in Title IX issues for the Victim Rights Law Center, said that while she encourages conversations about sexual violence in the classroom, issues of such a sensitive nature have to be approached carefully.
“Unless someone talks to a professor who is trained in trauma and who is understanding of the situation … I would be concerned,” she said. “The negative reactions that people received [could] upset them, in a way that could stall a healing process or that could discourage them from telling somebody else.”
Mandating students to discuss their experience with the #MeToo movement is problematic, Bruno said, and could lead to the minimization of students’ trauma.
Although the outcome of the review is uncertain, Atkinson is recommending for his students to engage in a dialogue with the administration, regardless of their opinion on the matter, according to an email he wrote to his class.
The class will be forging on ahead with an editorial assignment, based loosely on the same topic as that of their memoir assignment, according to the email.
