Dear Students,

I wanted to reach out today and to personally apologize for the University’s Thursday, February 17 Instagram post that combined the UVM men’s basketball team’s title win with a statement about sexual misconduct and the anonymous posting of stories by survivors. It should not have occurred and I want to acknowledge the harm that it caused survivors and the UVM community as a whole.

Since the posting, over the weekend and yesterday and today, I have exchanged messages and personally met with students including the AdvoCat leaders, SGA leaders, student activists, the men’s basketball team and coaches, and others. These meetings raised complex emotions for me and I am working to process them. I am sure this is true for each of the groups with whom I met and who are reading this message. 

There are three primary themes that arose from each conversation:

• First and foremost, all students with whom I spoke were committed to the prevention of sexual violence and recognize the harm that it causes.
• Second, students want candid conversations about what is occurring and are willing to engage in thoughtful and reflective dialogue about the current narrative. 
• Third, university communications on this matter need to improve.

You give me hope that we can find our way forward. I know it will not be easy. But we all share these common goals—the eradication of sexual violence on campus and providing support for all those who are impacted.

As preliminary steps toward these goals, I make these promises to you—I will work with students to find a space to share your experiences and to recognize differences in perspectives, and I will ensure that any communication regarding students and sexual violence will undergo thorough review and will require my final approval.

On Thursday, February 24, I will meet with Dr. Elliot Ruggles, our new Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Coordinator, whose first day at UVM was Tuesday, February 22. We’ll discuss the issues we are facing at UVM, a more effective approach to sexual assault prevention and education, and how our communication and engagement around this can better support our students. I have also met with our Chief Communications Officer to discuss our approach to social media so that we can improve our responsiveness and attention to issues important to our students. In addition, we will continue the actions listed here.

Once I have had a chance to reflect on all that I have heard this week, I will communicate with you about the next steps that are needed to advance our goals of providing students space to share their experiences, honoring difference in those perspectives, and providing an improved communication strategy. I will not always get this right, but please know I hear all of you and will work hard with my leadership team to do better.

Sincerely,

Patty Prelock
Provost and Senior Vice President