Joeva Sean Rock

September 18, 2012

Dear Provost Bass, Vice-Provost Peres, and Asst. Vice Pres. Of Communications Lepre:

Let us begin by first stating our steadfast support of Dr. Pine as a professor, colleague and mother. She made a decision that other faculty, staff, and students at American University have had to make through the years. Dr. Pine has been silenced and publicly humiliated as a direct result of the actions of the AU administration; and these actions have also harmed the learning environment and the workspace for anthropology and other students. It angers and saddens us to see the public discourse predicated on the assumption that Dr. Pine taught the class poorly, a statement that some media outlets (e.g. Slate) have made as though it were fact.  As members of the AU community, which prides itself on its commitments to diversity and inclusion, we will not tolerate this kind of treatment…