When this investigator first
contacted her, Richter alleged
that one of the first things he told
her was that he was surprised
she was reporting Trevor. The
investigator allegedly said he
had worked with Trevor after
Trevor reported Richter and
the other faculty member to
OIE and — according to Richter
— the investigator said Trevor
was a “great guy.” One of the
individuals contacted by The
Daily confirmed that Richter
shared this story with them at
the time.
“After he said that, I just
checked out,” Richter said.
As
a
result
of
these
frustrations, Richter said she
decided to take a step back from
the investigation in late May
2018. Over the summer, she
heard little from Trevor.
However, with Trevor poised
to
take
over
as
Hopwood
Director in Fall 2018 and to
move into an office adjoined
to the Hopwood Room, one of
Richter’s supervisors contacted
Trevor around this time to
request that he wait to move
into the office until the end of
summer, according to an April
25, 2018 email obtained by The
Daily. The supervisor advised
him to delay his move to create
a “more comfortable working
environment”
for
Richter,
who was still working in the
Hopwood Room.
Trevor wrote back that he
took issue with the suggestion.
“(Y)our email is obviously
unsettling to me as it implies
that
my
presence
in
the
Hopwood
Director’s
office
would make Emma Richter
uncomfortable,” Trevor wrote
in response.
Ultimately,
Richter
said
that Trevor moved into the
office at the beginning of
the Fall 2018 semester, but
problems
continued.
With
Trevor officially stationed
in the director’s office and
without
any
enforceable
measures
preventing
her
from having to see Trevor,
Richter said the situation
worsened.
To avoid further encounters
with Trevor in the Hopwood
Room, Richter said she took
three weeks off of paid time
off in October 2018. She also
took a week off of her classes,
due to mounting stress of
being unable to avoid Trevor
in the workplace. The Daily
was provided documentation
of this time off in both cases.
At the end of the month,
she
also
reached
out
to
OIE to continue with the
investigation process.
Richter alleged that she
also continued to encounter
Trevor
outside
of
the
Hopwood
Room.
In
the
Spring 2019 semester, she
was working a part-time job
at Literati Bookstore, which
frequently
partners
with
Helen Zell for events and
readings. Richter alleged that
Trevor continued to try to
interact with her in the store.
“(Trevor)
would
insert
himself into places that I
was, or conversations (I was
having),” Richter said.
After
one
Helen
Zell-
affiliated
event
in
April
2019 where Trevor was in
attendance
and
allegedly
tried to interact with her
— which a former Literati
employee
was
able
to
independently corroborate —
Richter said she approached
the owners of Literati with
her concerns. The owners
contacted Trevor and asked
him to no longer visit the
store, according to Richter.
Two employees of Literati
in April 2019 confirmed that
Trevor was asked not to enter
the store and was added to
an internal list of banned
customers around this time
as a result of complaints from
Literati staff. The owners
of Literati did not respond
to
multiple
requests
for
comment.
Richter graduated from the
University at the end of the
Spring 2019 semester. The
OIE investigation of Trevor’s
conduct did not conclude
until almost a year after her
graduation
in
the
Spring
2020
semester.
According
to Richter, the experience
and
ensuing
reporting
process consumed more than
a third of her three-year
undergraduate career.
“It was really like a full
year of my life, dealing with
so much pressure, dealing
with school, dealing with
needing to keep multiple jobs
and doing a thesis and also
trying to have friends, while
also being pressured by these
professors who harassed me,”
Richter said. “It became my
whole life, in a really awful
way, and took away so much
from that time in my life.”
“It’s changed my life
forever”
Over the course of 2018, a
Helen Zell alum and former
staff member of the program
alleged
that
her
close,
occasionally boundary-pushing
friendship with Trevor quickly
devolved
into
months
of
retaliation and attempts to get
her fired. Trevor stepped down
as the director of Helen Zell at
the end of the same year.
The former staff member
spoke on the condition of
anonymity, citing privacy and
safety concerns. In this article,
she will be referred to as Kate.
In
interviews
with
The
Daily, Kate alleged that this
retaliation
began
after
she
sent Trevor an angry email
in January 2018 calling him
out for what she considered
“obnoxious” behavior.
The Daily spoke with three
individuals familiar with her
experiences who corroborated
the
consistency
of
her
allegations.
“It’s
changed
my
life
forever,” Kate said. “I’m, like,
kind of hyper-vigilant now,
probably forever.”
Kate said she and Trevor
started as friends. She was
hired for a staff position in 2016
after completing her third year
with Helen Zell and worked
closely with Trevor, who had
become director the same year.
The two had inside jokes, would
casually text and observed “low
levels of professionalism.”
Kate also said Trevor was
flirtatious with her. She said he
sent her suggestive messages,
on multiple occasions sending
her songs with romantic lyrics
and calling them “our song.”
(The
Daily
reviewed
some
of
these
messages
through
screenshots provided by Kate.)
Given that they were closer
in age — Kate said she came to
the program later than many of
her peers — and close as friends,
she said his actions didn’t
strike her as inappropriate at
the time, so she didn’t call him
out then.
“I can look back now and be
like, ‘That wasn’t appropriate,’”
Kate said. “‘He shouldn’t have
been flirty.’”
Trevor and Kate allegedly
maintained this close working
relationship
and
friendship
until January 2018, when Kate
sent Trevor the angry email,
frustrated at the fluctuating
boundaries in their professional
relationship.
While
their
working relationship survived
for a few months after that,
Kate said this marked the end
of their friendship.
According to Kate, three
months later, in April 2018 — the
same month Richter reported
Trevor
to
OIE
—
Trevor
reported Kate to staff Human
Resources, also contacting her
supervisor as well as David
Porter,
then-chair
of
the
English Department. He told
all three that Kate had been
unprofessional in the January
2018 email, according to Kate.
This marked the beginning
of Trevor’s attempts to “ruin
my life,” Kate said.
In
one
instance,
Trevor
accused Kate of encouraging
Richter to report him to OIE
because of Kate’s “resentment”
toward
him,
an
allegation
Richter and Kate denied to
The Daily. When Richter’s
supervisor — who was also
Kate’s
supervisor
—
asked
Trevor to delay his move-in to
the Hopwood Room director’s
office to help Richter feel
more comfortable in the April
2018 email shown earlier and
printed again below, Trevor
responded by doubling down
on his allegation that Kate was
behind Richter’s OIE report.
“I have reasons to believe that
my own comportment is being
misrepresented and that this
could be tied to the situations
I endured with (Kate) this past
semester,” Trevor wrote. “ ...
I fear that I might be in the
process (of) being slandered
due to the resentment of a
staff member and that staff
member’s
relationship
with
others.”
Kate
said
Trevor’s
accusations
against
her
continued to escalate from
there. Trevor also allegedly
called the police on Kate in the
Fall 2018 semester after her
phone had “butt-dialed” him
multiple times. Kate said she
received a call from the police,
telling her they had received a
complaint from Trevor that she
was harassing him.
Kate’s
friend,
who
corroborated the consistency
of this account to The Daily,
later
accompanied
Kate
to
the Apple Store. They learned
the calls Kate claimed were
unintentional stemmed from
him having been listed as her
emergency contact earlier in
their working relationship, the
friend and Kate said. Kate said
she got a new phone because of
how alarming Trevor’s reaction
was.
At
the
time,
OIE’s
investigation
into
Trevor’s
conduct, initiated by Richter’s
April 2018 complaint, was still
underway. In October and after
the phone incident, to evade
further
escalation,
Porter
and the LSA Dean’s office
offered
Kate
a
“temporary
reassignment”
until
Trevor
was no longer director of Helen
Zell.
By the time Trevor stepped
down from the directorship
in December 2018, however,
the
experience
had
been
traumatizing
to
the
extent
that Kate said she chose not to
return.
“It’s
stressful
to
have
someone throw grenade after
grenade at you, even if they
don’t go off, you know?” Kate
said.
“Because
he
thinks
they’re going to go off. Like, he
wants them to go off.”
A “very clear double
standard”
With
Trevor
as
director
of the Helen Zell Writers’
Program from 2016 through
2018, students would have to go
to him to report their alleged
conflicts.
Molly
Dickinson,
a former Helen Zell student,
alleged that Trevor repeatedly
sided with her professor when
Dickinson
went
to
Trevor
with her concerns, resulting
in Dickinson feeling alienated
from the program.
Dickinson was a student in
the Helen Zell Writers’ Program
from 2015 to 2017. At the
beginning of her last semester
in
the
program,
Dickinson
alleged that Trevor ignored her
concerns when she brought him
troubling communication she
had received from an instructor
and instead warned her against
threatening
the
educational
environment.
(The
Daily
contacted
Dickinson’s
professor,
who
cited Dickinson’s privacy in
declining to comment.)
Two
colleagues
of
Dickinson’s and one friend
confirmed to The Daily that
she shared this story with them
at the time, as did another
colleague
who
accompanied
Dickinson
to
one
of
her
meetings with Trevor.
In January 2017, Dickinson
contacted
a
professor
over
email, informing them that
she would be absent from class
one day due to ethical concerns
with
a
course
assignment.
Trevor
became
involved
when Dickinson’s instructor
replied that she had reported
Dickinson to Trevor for the
email. The professor initially
encouraged Dickinson to make
arrangements with Trevor to
drop the class. The Daily was
provided a copy of their email
exchange, an excerpt of which
is printed below.
Alarmed
by
what
she
considered
an
“abrasive”
response from her instructor
— as well as the obstacle it
could pose in her ability to
graduate on time that semester
— Dickinson had a one-on-one
meeting with Trevor the next
day, hopeful her concerns about
how her instructor responded
would be heard.
Dickinson
remembered
printing her email exchange
with the professor to show
Trevor. She also brought a
message her professor had
sent to the rest of the class
responding to the concerns
Dickinson
had
identified
without naming her, a copy
of which was provided to The
Daily. In the meeting, however,
Dickinson said Trevor refused
to look at the materials she’d
brought.
“Pretty
quickly
in
our
conversation, I realized that
he was not really a receptive
person and not someone who
was going to be advocating
for my experience at all,”
Dickinson said.
Instead, Dickinson claimed
that Trevor lectured her about
how her words had made her
instructor feel unsafe.
“He magnified it into this
very large and bizarre argument
about the quality of open
discussion in the classroom …
without actually engaging in
any specific conversation with
me about the truly abrasive
words that were written to me,”
Dickinson said.
The
issue
over
one
assignment
spawned
into
additional meetings between
her and Trevor, Dickinson said.
Dickinson also alleged that over
the course of their discussions
over this conflict, Trevor would
offer lucrative professional and
academic opportunities in what
felt like efforts to appease her,
then expressed surprise or
denied he had made the offer
when she followed up.
In one instance, Dickinson
said
that
Trevor
offered
to
arrange
a
workshop
between her and one of the
program’s high-profile visiting
writers
from
the
popular
Zell Visiting Writer Series.
Dickinson said this offer was
especially appealing, given the
complications she experienced
in her coursework that semester
due to the unresolved issue with
the professor. However, when
she followed up, Dickinson
said Trevor did not follow
through on that offer.
“When I actually turned
around and asked for that,
he just thought it was mind-
boggling that I would think
to
make
such
a
request,”
Dickinson said.
Kate,
who
was
in
her
administrative
position
at
the
time,
corroborated
the
consistency of this allegation.
Dickinson said the alleged
lack of support from Trevor
and the ensuing complications
in her path to graduation took
a toll on her mental health.
She also said that it resulted
in feelings of social alienation
from the program as a whole.
“I
very
much
retreated
from the MFA community,”
Dickinson
said.
“From
everything, really.”
Because
Dickinson
said
her concerns were repeatedly
dismissed
in
subsequent
meetings with Trevor, she said
the experience illustrated for
her the ways in which Trevor’s
rules of professionalism applied
differently to students than
they did to faculty.
“There seems to be this very,
very clear double standard of:
‘We can be personal and fun and
intimate when I say it’s okay,’”
Dickinson said. “‘But when you
unknowingly
do
something
that I don’t agree with, then we
pull down the jail.’”
“Their hands are often tied”
The women who shared their
accounts said it wasn’t just
Trevor’s alleged behavior that
was at the crux of their negative
experiences.
Rather,
they
contended that the University’s
reporting
mechanisms
were
not prepared to handle their
cases in a way that protects
vulnerable parties from the
actions of tenured faculty.
OIE
has
consistently
been criticized for its time-
consuming
investigation
processes. In both Richter’s
and Kate’s experiences, they
said
Trevor
continued
and
escalated his behavior while
the OIE investigation was in
progress.
“The way time works at the
University is different from how
it works for individual people,”
Kate said. “It’s really easy for
the University to just outwait
(complainants). … Things take
a month, two months, three
months, you know — people
get tired. People get distracted.
They move on.”
For Richter and Kate, as they
waited for the OIE investigation
to close, their best option to
avoid Trevor was temporarily
leaving their jobs altogether.
Former students, including
Dickinson, who experienced
conflict related to Trevor’s
Helen Zell directorship told
The
Daily
their
negative
experiences
with
him
also
drove them away from the
program.
Richter, Kate and Dickinson
each shared that they did, on the
other hand, feel supported by
individual English Department
administrators in the process.
They
stressed
that
the
English Department took the
allegations seriously, but that
departmental
administrators’
ability to intervene on students’
and staff member’s behalf was
limited.
“A thing that I really was
struck by in my experience
there was how intensely their
hands are often tied,” Kate
said. “It’s not the kind of thing
where, you know, a few people
can be like, ‘This is messed up.
Get rid of this person.’ That’s
just not how the University
works. Maybe it should be. But
that’s not how it’s structured.”
When asked what options
are at a student’s disposal if
they do not feel comfortable
reporting to a program director
or
administrator,
Fitzgerald
responded with other routes a
student may take depending on
the nature of the complaint in
a follow-up email to The Daily.
Options include reporting to
a department chair, the dean’s
office of a particular college
or OIE. Fitzgerald emphasized
that OIE investigates issues
“beyond sexual misconduct,”
such as discrimination based on
race, national origin, disability
and religion.
In an email to The Daily,
Porter,
the
former
English
Department Chair during the
time of the three allegations
reported in this article, provided
the
English
Department’s
specific mediation protocols,
specifying
the
roles
that
departmental officers are and
are not advised to play. He also
commented on the distinction
between OIE’s and specific
department’s
responsibilities
when a complaint is under
investigation.
“Once a formal complaint
has been lodged with OIE,
the expectation is that OIE
takes on full responsibility
for
investigating
the
complaint,”
Porter
wrote.
“While department leadership
is
expected
to
establish
and
reinforce
expectations
for
respectful
workplace
behavior and to offer support
to
department
members
who
report
problematic
experiences,
decisions
concerning consequences for
violations are entirely in the
hands of the college deans.”
In Curzan’s own letter of
reprimand
for
Trevor,
she
alluded to OIE’s findings before
writing that she nonetheless
found his behavior “troubling.”
She added that his alleged
retaliation posed concerns for
the departmental climate.
“Research
shows
that
workplaces where retaliation
occurs
can
foster
sexual
harassment because fear of
reprisal
limits
reporting,”
Curzan wrote. “This is not a
culture or climate that any of
us want to have in LSA.”
Richter
emphasized
that,
ultimately, this becomes an
issue of not only individual
student’s
experiences,
but
also of diversity, equity and
inclusion at the University.
“If I hadn’t been a young
woman in that employment
environment
…
I
wouldn’t
have experienced what I did,”
Richter said. “It’s not just
like: Bring those people to the
room. It’s like: How do you
treat them when they’re there?
And if they’re treated like that,
they’re not going to want to be
there.”
Started
in
January
2021,
Focal Point is The Michigan
Daily’s dedicated investigative
reporting team and main outlet
for
investigative
longform
content. Focal Point reporters
spend
months
interviewing
multiple sources and gathering
documents to produce complex,
nuanced content. In many cases,
Focal Point uncovers stories that
those in power have sought to
repress.
Daily Staff Reporter Julianna
Morano can be reached at
jucomora@michigandaily.com.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
4 — Wednesday, January 20, 2021
FOCAL POINT
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Design by Samuel Turner
Read the letters obtained by the
Michigan Daily during this investigation
at MichiganDaily.com