To the Hotchkiss School Board of Trustees:
As the fiftieth year of co-education at Hotchkiss approaches, we the undersigned ask you to reverse the sanctions imposed on Heads of School, William Olsen and Arthur White following the 2018 Locke Lord Investigation. We ask for this action as Alumni who have tremendously benefitted from the contributions of these two legendary educational leaders, both of whom selflessly dedicated their lives to Hotchkiss and whose legacies mean so much to generations of students, parents, and faculty members.
Importantly, we like most Hotchkiss Alumni unequivocally support the spirit of HAFRAH and the victims of sexual misconduct at Hotchkiss and applaud their courage and perseverance in striving for total transparency and reconciliation.
Having said that, Mr. Olsen and Mr. White guided the school through the dramatic societal changes of the late sixties and seventies. Their bold and determined vision to form a more diverse and inclusive student body, including the highly contentious transition to coeducation, transformed Hotchkiss into the progressive institution we are so rightfully proud of today. It was largely through their collective efforts and skilled administration that Hotchkiss emerged not only as one of the most distinguished secondary schools in the country, but as a model for other schools. Their respective tenures laid the essential foundation of critical standards and core values that define the School’s ethos today.
We can all empathize that pioneering a new social agenda in co-education fifty years ago was fraught with risks, trial and error, and inevitable misunderstandings and mistakes. Bill Olsen and Art White would be the first to acknowledge that they were by no means perfect and were certainly not omniscient; but no one can deny that they were deeply caring and morally engaged. They strove for excellence in all aspects of the School’s life, the centerpiece of which was an inclusive and cohesive community spirit.
In 2018, Locke Lord was engaged by the former Hotchkiss Board at the request of HAFRAH to continue the investigation into cases of sexual misconduct at the School. In doing so, the law firm set forth the criteria for passing judgment on Hotchkiss administration/faculty members, with the Trustees abdicating their fiduciary role both in the investigation and as to Locke Lord’s conclusions. Their final report asserted no misdeeds by Messrs. Olsen and White, and did not recommend any action against either of them.
The subsequent decision of the Board to sanction them was therefore arbitrary and subjective. Neither the Locke Lord Report nor the Board Chair’s explanatory letter to Alumni on August 17, 2018 provided credible evidence against them and did not even assert that an actual investigation into their behavior and actions had taken place. Furthermore, it provided no semblance of due and fair process around their potential culpability, such as the questioning of former Trustees, lawyers, parents or faculty members from the time of the alleged incidents.
The Board’s unilateral decision to dishonor Mr. Olsen’s and Mr. White’s respective legacies triggered one of the most divisive alumni conflicts in Hotchkiss history. Tragically, that Board’s decision and messaging hindered many Alumni from embracing the essential findings of the Locke Lord Report – that sexual harassment and abuse did occur – and also the victims’ cause. Instead of securing a collective community agreement on a critically important issue, the Board’s denigration of two beloved Heads of School created division and disillusionment among a significant number of Alumni.
The character, values and body of work of Bill Olsen and Art White have been chronicled by the School in many of its publications. The Hotchkiss Magazine’s Spring, 1981 and Summer, 1989 Headmaster retirement editions in particular vividly capture their enormous contributions and highlight their wonderful stewardship and humanity. It is inconceivable to us that the two gentlemen celebrated in these testimonials could have their legacies radically altered many decades later, without clear and unequivocal justification.
Together, you as members of the present Board of Trustees, and we as devoted but disenfranchised alumni, can right this wrong and reestablish the dignity and honorable legacies of these two educational leaders. While we all need to face the terrible revelations about our shared past and work to transcend them, we must also be clear-eyed about assigning blame only where it is indisputable and warranted.
To this end, the signatories of this petition are asking the current Hotchkiss Board of Trustees to reinstate these two highly admired Hotchkiss Heads of School, and by this action advance a healing process that includes ALL Hotchkiss alumni.