Réponse de Dennis J. Shields

I appreciate the interest of everyone who has and will sign this petition on this important issue. The petitioners need to know that a meeting has been scheduled with the person who started this petition. You also need to know that this petition started without the respect and courtesy of speaking with me directly about this issue. Further some of the supposed facts surrounding the efforts made by the university to address the issue of sexual assault that make up the justification for the petition are either incomplete or inaccurate. There have been a number of actions taken by the university under my leadership to address these issues. One can disagree about the efficacy of those efforts, but in my view the petition was started without the effort to be fully informed about the efforts that have been made. The lack of any effort to contact me directly before engaging in this sort of action now creates an opportunity to learn how to create real change in a collaborative and positive way. I look forward to working with the campus community on making this an even safer and welcoming place for all members of our university community.