CAYTE PUSHKAREVA/YH

Behind the Div School's weathered gates

"As we entered, before getting to the staircase, someone grabbed me by the neck and hit me hard until I found myself rolling on the floor," Nicholas Otieno, DIV '02, alleged in a letter to the Yale Divinity School Administration. Declaring himself the victim of a classmate's racial assault, Otieno, a Kenyan, first approached the Administration for help on Fri., Jan. 28: "I appeal to your good office to ensure that my freedoms as a student are safeguarded." Otieno has since become disillusioned. "The Div School," he stated, "did not react with integrity."

The off-kilter front gate of the Divinity School opens onto a deserted quad, dilapidated buildings, and a rash of peeling paint, all set before a majestic chapel. The scene seems symbolic both of the school's present troubles and its links to Yale's religious past. Since gaining autonomy from Yale College in 1822, the Divinity School is one of the last Yale institutions still rooted in Christianity. Its community is a small, insular one: with a population of under 400 students and 40 full-time faculty members, and a location more than a mile east of central campus, "it's easy to get a little too isolated here," according to Divinity School Dean Richard Wood, GRD '65. Though such dynamics can lead to "a community life [that] is more important to us than it is at other schools," as Wood said, it can also lead to intense tensions on campus during times of discord. The school has experienced such anxiety several times since Fri., Nov. 12, 1999, when allegations surfaced that one Divinity student had raped another, and the school exploded with months of incensed argument over administrative policy.

The debates haven't stopped since—if anything, they have become wider in scope. An alleged racial assault and an eviction of a disabled student, combined with cries of administrative incompetence and suggestions for reform, have collectively thrown the Divinity School community into an activist fervor. Even as the school prepares for $38 million worth of renovations and continues to rival the divinity schools of Harvard and the University of Chicago as one of the top in the country, it must face a public that is questioning why Yale Divinity has seemingly lost the pastoral tranquility it once possessed. Meanwhile, its community demands that the school fulfill its often-trying mission of "fostering the knowledge and love of God...in the context of the contemporary world."

Is an attack on a sheep an attack on the flock?

Two months after the alleged assault, Otieno is still angry. When the disciplinary committee convened to hear his complaint, three weeks had passed and eight of his letters had gone unacknowledged. At the time, Otieno was shocked by how "formal matters [were being] dealt with in informal and ad hoc ways." Only two of the five committee members arrived for the meeting, forcing Otieno's own faculty advisor to join the committee rather than support Otieno through the process. Without his advisor, Otieno felt even more intimidated by the presence of the accused, Derek Nelson, who sat across from him during Otieno's statement. "It was a horrible environment," Otieno explained. "I felt like I was on trial." Student Council Co-President Demetrius Semien, DIV '00, who served as a committee member, sympathizes with Otieno's complaints. "I can understand how he'd feel that way," he said, adding that the administration is reevaluating its rules of procedure.

Upset with the committee and wary of reporters—he has refused all prior requests for interviews—Otieno left New Haven after his testimony concluded. On Thurs., Feb. 24, the verdict came by e-mail: "The Disciplinary Committee concluded that...Mr. Nelson pushed or shoved or pulled Mr. Otieno which caused him to fall and that this action was more in the spirit of drunken recklessness than in hostility." The committee put Nelson on probation, recommended that he receive alcohol counseling, and suggested that he apologize to his estranged classmate.

Otieno feels that both the interpretation of the event and the punishment were offensively inappropriate. "The wording of that letter is entirely political," he said. "The Administration was more interested in saving its reputation and integrity than in addressing the question of justice." Furthermore, though Wood insists that the Divinity School is monitoring Nelson's compliance, Otieno sees no evidence of it. "How can a school monitor drinking habits?" he asked. Otieno also feels that Nelson violated the spirit of the decision by refusing to apologize.

Wood, however, stands by the Administration's response. "I do not agree with Nicholas that he did not get an adequate hearing," he said. "We were extremely careful to be fair with him." Furthermore, Wood felt that the incident may have been overblown. "[Otieno is] not from this country," he noted. "He may not understand the culture here." On a more general level, he said, "We, as a community, over-reacted...There was no evidence that it was a racial incident at all."

Nelson agrees that the Divinity School community judged his case too hastily. Though he "was not happy with the way things went," he attributes that more to the response of the students than to the actions of the Administration. "People at the Divinity school are, by nature, activist," he said. "They're trained to solve problems. Sometimes, they want to solve problems so bad that they're willing to create them." Though he does not question the motives of those attempting to help, he sees the community as one prepared to invent "a racial incident that didn't happen just to talk about the issue." Moreover, Nelson wasn't allowed to talk about the incident during the proceedings. "My hands were tied; I couldn't defend myself," he said. "I think that's a flaw in the system."

Though Nelson is ready for the affair to be over, Otieno is currently appealing his case beyond the Divinity School to the Yale University Office of Equal Opportunities (OEO). He is prepared to pursue the matter further if still dissatisfied with the University's response. "I think that [the incident is] still fresh," he explained. "I can still press charges. I am really hoping that the [OEO] will act with expediency to bring this matter to a close. If not, then I will pursue other, legal options." He would not comment on whether or not he plans to sue the Divinity School at such a time.

Reformation

CAYTE PUSHKAREVA/YH Many controversies have embroiled the Divinity School, Nicholas Otieno's, DIV '02, case among them.

Christopher Harris, a former Divinity School freshman, has been more vocal about his legal plans. Harris, who is Af-rican-American and legally blind, plans to sue the school for what he feels was an "egregious malfeasance of the ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] as well as of my civil rights." Harris was evicted from his dorm on Tues., Feb. 15 after the tenants upstairs—Melinda McGarrah, DIV '01, and Rebecca Wilkinson, DIV '01—alleged that he made prank calls and banged loudly on his ceiling, forcing them to call the police. The same day, Harris—who had been forced to drop classes in order to catch up on work from the previous term—received a letter from the registrar, stating that he had "de facto withdrawn from the Divinity School."

In response, Harris claimed that neither the Divinity School nor the Office of Disabilities was able to provide him with the note-takers, research assistants, and text readers he had been promised. He became frustrated with a school unable to accommodate his needs and beliefs: "The attitude seems to be: if you're not going to adapt to our model, what are you doing here?" According to Harris, not only did the professors have "no idea how to proceed" with a blind student, but there was also "an underlying racial tension, especially for those that affirm their ethnicity," pervading the Divinity School. "If a black student says something in class, and a white student says the very same thing, then what the white student says is more profitable," he said. These factors have combined, Harris said, to render his experience at the Divinity School a lonely and disheartening one.

Wood dismissed many of Harris' complaints, explaining that his eviction was rooted in his violation of a rent agreement and that any frustration he might have had with the Office of Disabilities "doesn't excuse his behavior" in that regard. However, other students have perceived the same racism to which Harris referred. Delphain Demosthenes, DIV '00, the co-chair of the Black Seminarians student group, said that he's "definitely heard comments like [Harris'], many times," coming from African-American students. Semien concurred, but estimated that the school is "more or less equally prejudiced as the rest of the country."

Most students and faculty agree that one of the first steps toward eradicating such racism is to diversify the community, both ethnically and denominationally. Guy Martin, the associate dean of admissions and financial aid, feels that prospects are good for the incoming class. In the past, the school has had difficulty attaining student diversity, with an admittance rate hovering around 80 percent and a pool of under 300 applications from which to choose. However, after an intense effort to publicize the school and improve its image, applications have increased to nearly 400 and the admittance rate has dropped to 72 percent. This, according to Martin, has allowed for a student body that is both academically stronger and more ethnically diverse than before.

However, some feel that without a thorough commitment to diversity, such efforts may be counterproductive. "As the school brings in more minority students, then there's also a need to put the structures in place to make them feel at home," Demosthenes said. Specifically, both students and faculty have called for greater diversity among professors. However, Wood said, "It's terribly difficult to find faculty who are ethnically more diverse and can keep up with the intellectual demands [of the Divinity School]. Our first concern is to find faculty that will command the respect of the rest of the University." As a more immediate solution, the Divinity School has gone outside its walls to hire six counselors to mentor minority students.

Another way to accommodate increased diversity, some suggest, is to update the curriculum. Demosthenes noted that few courses at the Divinity School address the issues facing the black church. Another student, Ed Stueckle, DIV '00, said that the current academic attitude toward non-Western religions "is extremely patronizing." However, Professor Harry Adams, PC '45, DIV '51, warned against making impatient demands for reform. "There has been a long history of the Divinity School making evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, changes in the curriculum," he said. The school is currently in the process of planning several centers for research, including one in the study of World Christianity, in order to increase its ecumenical scope.

In the meantime, many students and faculty members have focused on more direct approaches in order to improve community relations. There has been a multitude of discussion forums in the last few months, and student groups have attempted to unite under a wider "Leadership Federation" in order to promote cohesiveness. And, according to Erin Croddick, DIV '00, co-chair of the highly visible Women's Center, well-established organizations like her own have co-sponsored events with groups such as the recently formed Yale Divinity Latino/a Association in order to lend support to new organizations. Other individuals, such as Professor David Kelsey, GRD '64, have suggested that the school promote a program of deliberate diversity training as an additional response.

Rebuilding the city on the hill

Some students aim their criticism toward Yale as a whole. While Semien acknowledged that "there's been a lot of gratitude" for the planned renovations, the construction comes after years of petitioning the University amid fears that the school might be shut down. Furthermore, much of the campus remains in shockingly bad condition. "Think of the message it sends," Semien said. "It affects the morale of the community." Many students, feeling marginalized by the University, chalk it up to attending a school with relatively few financially prominent alumni. However, Wood suggested that dismissive attitudes derive more from individuals than from the University Administration itself. "There is a significant body of people [in the Yale community] who do not understand why we should have a Christian theological school," he acknowledged, though he has never felt the same "question of purpose coming from the University leadership."

Despite Yale's financial backing, the Divinity School still cannot fund all it needs to. Even with a remodeling budget of $38 million, not all the buildings are slated for renovation. Most significantly, the decrepit apartment dorms, in which about 100 primarily first-year students live, have no remodeling prospects. Students have protested; some have appealed to University President Richard Levin, GRD '74, to ensure that such trivial repairs as fixing storm windows are taken care of, and earlier in the year, fliers advertised an e-mail address to which students could anonymously relate their "stories of horror." Wood himself acknowledged that the apartments are products of "shameful neglect," and confirmed the necessity of remodeling them once money is available. In the meantime, most students, after fighting for dorm housing before arriving, move off campus as quickly as possible.

Yet, even as the Divinity School grapples with its problems and attempts to respond to the rash of student incidents, many feel that the school's sufferings have been exaggerated. Wood suggested that the perception of social ills on campus may derive from "the higher expectations that we have here." Indeed, certain attitudes, or perhaps the motivations behind them, do seem different at the Divinity School. With its older, highly religious student body, perhaps this is to be expected. For example, the first time Otieno saw his alleged assailant after the ruling was while receiving the Eucharist, and he said it was Nelson's participation in the religious ceremony that spurred an initial desire to forgive. "Christ put it very clearly," he explained. "If one of your brothers has wronged you, you should leave your gifts at the altar and seek reconciliation with him." Student Council Co-President Christine Housel, DIV '00, put it more broadly. "We're not afraid to acknowledge the breakages that are there," she said. "We have faith that God will help us in times of transition. That's one thing that separates us from the rest of Yale."

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