20181214.0430

On 10 December 2018, the editors of the San Antonio Express-News placed "Handling of Serious Allegations at UTSA Laudable" in the online version of the paper. The piece commends the University of Texas at San Antonio and its current president, Taylor Eighmy, for how recent allegations of student sexual assault have been handled: quickly, thoroughly, and transparently. While the editors report understanding the desire to keep problems quiet, they also note that such quieting inevitably works ill. They further remark that similar handling of similar events at other schools would likely have resulted in better outcomes for all involved.
As a graduate of UTSA, albeit one who graduated more years ago than it's entirely comfortable to admit (BA, English, 2005), I'm glad to see praise heaped upon the institution. There've been enough black eyes for the school in the past years, some quite bad bruises for it, and while I am not immune to selfish concerns (bad press for my undergrad makes my undergrad look less good, and that negatively impact possible perceptions of me), I am more concerned that the many good people who have been at the school and still are at the school will be harmed. Conversely, having public praise for the institution come out helps the school's perception, which helps those who are and have been associated with it. So that much is to the good.
Another flip-side--because things can rotate along more than one axis, as long ago amazed me--is that UTSA is handling things well now serves as a sign that there have been too many such things, that the school and others have had too much practice with addressing such issues. The occurrence of such events is sufficiently prevalent that schools are beginning to learn from their own and others' mistakes--something that generally takes a damned lot of teaching to make happen. (Isn't it part of the reason history is taught and studied?) That there is some progress on investigating them does not mean things are going the way they ought to; at best, it suggests a beginning of a turn away from what ought not to be, along at least one axis.
However assiduously enforced the proscription against such things may be, they will not deter as much as needs to be deterred--just as laws against murder do not stop killing, laws against theft do not stop burglary, and repeated injunctions against stupidity have not stopped...much. And some might argue that that makes the attempt to enforce folly; indeed, such is a major underpinning of efforts against gun control legislation. It is true that punishment for perpetrators and a hoped-for restoration for victims are not as good as never having been violated, but it has to be better that perpetrators be punished than that they are not. UTSA's would then seem to be a step in the right direction along a path it were better never to have to walk--yet one that has many, many feet upon it.