"Sonya Tolpova" and Graduate Student Abuse at UCLA

Sun May 1 00:17:43 UTC 2005

Dear Ron,

Thank you for your email to the SEELANGS list.  The additional information
you provide does help clarify what has been going on at UCLA Slavic.  I am
glad to know that your department has received such laudatory reviews and
that your current students are happy.

I was a graduate student in the Linguistics Department at UCLA during a
part of the time when the abuses were occurring, and know several of the
students who were abused.  Given what you say, it is clear to me that the
person posting under the name Sonya Tolpova is one of your former graduate
students.  I literally cannot stop asking myself "Could it be X? Could it
be Y?"  This is why I do not understand your lack of concern or sympathy
towards this poster.  Your email seems to say "our department had problems
and graduate students were hurt, but we deserve only accolades for having
fixed it".  Surely it would have been more appropriate to say "I am deeply
saddened that the past problems in our department so traumatized a fellow
human being that they would feel compelled to post this, and we are
committed to never allowing this to happen again."

I can think of several reasons for assuming an alias other than to "avoid
liability should the contents of the posted messages and website be
determined actionable for libel".  Perhaps Sonya Tolpova is one of the
students who left your program rather than endure the situation at the
time, and simply wants to say her piece without worrying about getting
recriminating emails.  But what if Sonya Tolpova graduated and is now
working in the field?  Would you want your colleagues to think of you as a
former abused graduate student?  And what about those two problem faculty
members you refer to -- now Sonya Tolpova's colleagues?  I don't know what
Sonya Tolpova was hoping to accomplish, but I think she was right to
conceal her identity from them.

In closing, let me say that I am delighted to know that your department has
been so successful in making positive changes and it is clearly appropriate
for you to have responded to the Tolpova email to let the Slavic community
know about them.  But certainly you could have done this without resorting
to blame-the-victim tactics.

Sincerely,

Katherine Crosswhite

At 03:50 PM 4/30/2005, you wrote:
>Dear SEELANGS Subscribers:
>
>
>
>On Tuesday, April 25, this list-serve posted a letter by one "Sonya Tolpova"
>whose purpose was to "alert you to the existence of a website detailing the
>abuse of graduate students in the UCLA Department of Slavic Languages and
>Literatures and the subsequent attempts by faculty members and the UCLA
>Administration to minimize and cover up this abuse." Readers should be aware
>that no "Sonya Tolpova" was ever enrolled in the UCLA Slavic Department. A
>different version of this same message, using an anonymous sender address,
>was also sent to UCLA faculty, regents, legislators, Slavic departments and
>perhaps other parties as well. In other words, both the letter and the
>website amount to what in the Soviet Union were called anonimki. The
>author's reason for masking his or her identity is clearly to avoid
>liability should the contents of the posted messages and website be
>determined actionable for libel or some other cause. They should be read, if
>at all, for what they are: anonymous denunciations whose contents are no
>more trustworthy than the fictitious name under which they are broadcast.
>
>
>
>Screeds of this sort, by virtue of their anonymity, merit no response, but
>since some readers may have innocently assumed that the author was speaking
>in her own name,  I feel compelled to respond in my capacity as Chair of the
>department that has been targeted by this unfortunate individual.
>
>
>
>In 1999-2000 the UCLA Slavic Department underwent a regularly scheduled
>eighth-year review. At the time the Administration came to the conclusion,
>based on interviews with students, that two of its fourteen faculty members
>(ten professors and four lecturers) had acted abusively toward students;
>that their colleagues had been complacent about these abuses; and that these
>problems needed to be addressed immediately. The University's Graduate
>Council suspended admissions in June 2000 and instructed the Department to
>present  a plan insuring the cessation of abusive conduct and the promotion
>of a positive learning environment. Prof. Michael Heim, then Chair of the
>Department, had the mandate of putting together this package of reforms in
>consultation with faculty and students. He carried out this task with
>diligence and honor. No student was compelled to participate in the process,
>and those who did had the option of submitting their comments anonymously.
>No recrimination of any sort was taken against those who chose to
>participate or those who chose not to.  The Graduate Council, satisfied that
>the reforms adopted on the basis of these consultations redressed students'
>grievances, reinstated the Department's right to admit graduate students six
>months later, in December 2000.
>
>
>
>To speak of a "cover-up" here defies credibility. The Administration
>insisted on a second review in 2002 and a third in 2005, though the normal
>interval between reviews is eight years.  Their explicit purpose was to
>monitor progress in the Department, and they were conducted with the full
>cooperation of faculty, students and staff.
>
>
>
>That the reforms adopted after the events of 1999-2000 review dramatically
>improved the situation in the Department  is clear from the review conducted
>this past January. As in 2000, it was a "full" review involving external
>consultants (from the University of Michigan and Princeton University), four
>internal reviewers from other departments and schools at UCLA, and a student
>officially representing UCLA's Graduate Student Association. A detailed
>self-review was vetted by the graduate students and voted on by the faculty
>and graduate student representative. During the "site visit" everyone who
>wished was given the opportunity to speak privately with review team
>members. One cannot, in short, imagine a more thorough review. Let me cite
>briefly from two documents that make up the final report. The first is from
>the assessment drawn by Prof. Ellen Chances of Princeton University (cited
>here with her permission). She writes, "The recent history of the Department
>of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UCLA, since the devastating internal
>review report of the year 2000, is, without exaggeration, a phenomenal
>success story. We all know instances of college and university
>  departments - in all fields - with toxic energy, whose toxic energy remains
>fixed in place, no matter what, throughout years and decades. The UCLA
>Slavic Department has accomplished an extraordinary feat. It has shifted the
>atmosphere from negative to positive in a matter of a very few years. It has
>done so by facing its problems. It has  done so by very hard work on the
>part of former chair Professor Michael Heim, current chair Professor Ronald
>Vroon, and the collective efforts of the faculty and graduate students. . .
>. This department, as I said at the beginning of my report, has done an
>extraordinary job of reversing a downward spiral, and of turning the
>department into a success story. It should be given the resources it so
>richly deserves in order to maintain its high standing as one of the finest
>Slavic departments in the nation."
>
>
>
>My second citation is from the primary report of the Review Committee. It
>concludes: "Since the 1999-2000 Academic Senate Review the Department of
>Slavic Languages and Literatures has turned itself around. Under the
>direction of the current chair, it has made remarkable progress in the areas
>of student welfare, curricular reform and departmental culture. It continues
>to be vigilant in these areas. The progress justifies confidence in the
>department's ability to increase its strengths in literature, to rebuild its
>linguistics program, and to develop an undergraduate minor program [in East
>Central European Studies]. These developments will only further enhance the
>department's national and international standing."
>
>
>
>How can we account for the appearance in April, 2005 of mass electronic
>mailings and a website "exposing" events that took place almost five years
>ago? My most charitable explanation is that author is simply unaware of the
>changes that have taken place in the Department, and is nursing old grudges.
>I suspect, however, that the postings were timed to coincide with the
>closure of the current review and minimize its positive impact by sullying
>the reputation of the Department, both faculty and students. I am confident
>that this will not happen, precisely because of the transformation that the
>Department has undergone. As proof let me cite one additional piece of
>evidence. After the "Tolpova" materials were posted at UCLA on April 20, the
>Graduate Student Association, unbeknownst to faculty,  set up a special
>mechanism enabling any students to comment privately and anonymously on
>them. All comments received were positive and supportive of the Department.
>
>
>
>Let me conclude by addressing a few words to the same audience that the
>Tolpova posting addresses at its conclusion: students interested in applying
>to UCLA and advisors who make recommendations about programs to such
>students. Visit the UCLA Slavic Department web site or, even better, get in
>contact with faculty and graduate students: they would be happy to speak to
>you and tell you what life is like here, both intellectually and socially.
>You will discover that the Department is indeed one of the finest Slavic
>Departments in the nation, as one of our external reports has concluded. The
>range and depth of expertise of its faculty is unparalleled. It offers a
>challenging program of study with a wide range of options for
>specialization. It continues to excel in placing students in colleges and
>universities across the nation. Above all, you will find here a congenial
>faculty deeply committed to providing an optimal learning environment and
>the best possible education for students in Slavic studies.
>
>
>
>Sincerely,
>
>
>
>Ronald Vroon
>
>Chair, UCLA Dept. of Slavic Languages & Literatures
>
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