Prof. Tillery kindly wrote to me and gave permission to share the following, which gives a more illuminating statement of what has transpired than I have seen in the media accounts:
I am writing to thank you for your very fair-minded blogging about the Jackie Stevens matter at Northwestern. I saw that Sara Monoson had an exchange with you already, and I was wondering if you had any questions for me or would like me to share any of the documents that I have about my interactions with Professor Stevens. Contrary to Professor Stevens's portrayal of these events, she has not been removed from campus because of the strange interaction that occurred in my office. Instead, she was removed because the investigation that she called for so that she could gain indemnification from the university against my legal actions turned up issues that triggered some of Northwestern's security protocols. I never asked for Professor Stevens to be removed from campus. Instead, I asked that my office be relocated to a different building so that I could get about my work and avoid her, just as I did when I was not serving in the departmental administration. I actually initiated legal action against Professor Stevens because I worried that the university would not act to punish her for spreading false claims against me. And, yes, the claims have been demonstrated to be false, and Professor Stevens knows that. I would also like to stress that my great alarm about Professor Stevens is not about micro-aggressions--they were just an extra bit of unpleasantness--but about the conspiracy element of her personal experience. In short, I felt threatened by Professor Stevens because (1) she believes that she is living out some sort of espionage novel; (2) thinks that I am part of the team against her; (3) falsified a complaint against me, which multiple witnesses (including her own) have now refuted; and (4) suggested that a young man volunteered to harm me on her behalf. So, I wanted to leave my office and go someplace else because I was not eager to see how that espionage novel--with me as the villain--was going to end. And, one just has to read her blog to see that it is an ongoing narrative for her, except, that is, when she needs the university to pay her legal bills.
Prof. Stevens's response to other media accounts certainly fits with what Prof. Tillery describes as her "ongoing narrative" of "conspiracy" and "espionage."
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