A philosopher at a university with some experience firing tenured faculty sent me a useful summary of Kipnis's account of the initial case against Ludlow, the one that resulted in his being driven from the classroom by the mob:
[T]he undergraduate who complained about Ludlow, "Eunice Cho," filed a lawsuit against him, and Kipnis quotes from the deposition in that case (chapter 1). The student claimed that she was so traumatized by Ludlow that she tried to kill herself by jumping into Lake Michigan in February. Someone on the shore saw her and called out to her, whereupon she swam out of the lake, went back to the dorm, waited outside for an hour for her clothes to dry off, then went inside and called two of her professors. In the deposition, she can't recall whether there was ice in the lake (in fact, there was a lot, and it was extremely cold on that night). Then there is this exchange:
Q: Okay. Did you have frostbite or anything?
A: No.
Q: Okay. Any hypothermia?
A: No, I didn’t have to get medical attention for it at all.
Q: You said you called your professors when you got back to your dorm, from the bathroom?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you call them from a pay phone or a cell phone?
A: Cell phone.
Q: Okay. Where was your cell phone when you were jumping into the lake?
[Kipnis comments:] At this point comes a long pause while Cho gropes for an explanation. On the video, you see her flummoxed by [attorney] Case’s questions and floundering for answers.
She ultimately decides that she had a bag with her, the phone was in the bag, and she left the bag on the pier when she jumped in. There is a lot more material like this. Cho comes off as about the least credible person possible.
I agree with that assessment of the import of the evidence adduced (I have, independently, read portions of the deposition transcripts, and Kipnis fairly represents them).
Recent Comments