Another reply to the open letter from faculty elsewhere

Professor McGinn has posted this reply, which makes some fair points (amidst some rhetorical excess of its own) that go to respects in which that letter was not well-drafted.  I do think the author is mistaken, however, on the retaliation issue:  in fact, the university has a legal obligation to defend a complainant in a case like this from retaliation.  Whether any of Professor McGinn's blog postings constitute illegal retaliation is a harder question (some plainly do not, others I am less sure), but it is fair to ask the university to look into it, just as it is fair to ask the university to protect the student's privacy rights under FERPA.  That Professor McGinn has not disclosed the identity of the complainant does not settle the retaliation question.