Scripps College has cleared two faculty members of allegations that were made against them in anonymous letters of complaint, President Lori Bettison-Varga wrote in an e-mail to the college community Thursday.
Bettison-Varga wrote that Scripps could not offer any details about the allegations, citing concerns about the privacy of the faculty members who were named in the complaints.
“In the past few months, the President and Dean of Faculty have received two anonymous letters with allegations against two faculty members,” she wrote. “The College has investigated these allegations in cooperation with the named individuals and determined them to be unfounded.”
Bettison-Varga also wrote that the submission of these allegations was “out of character for our community.”
Scripps Vice President for Communication and Marketing Marylou Ferry said that the complaint was inconsistent with the college’s Principles of Community, a document whose stated purpose is to “affirm the precepts that should govern relations among all campus populations.”
“It’s how we treat each other within this community,” Ferry said.
In her e-mail, Bettison-Varga warned about the consequences of breaking laws and Scripps policies against false accusations.
“In the event that any member of the Scripps community is found to have deliberately and with malice submitted allegations with no reasonable basis to support them and with the intent to harm the reputation of a member of our community, the College intends to pursue all appropriate actions, both internal under applicable College policies and external through civil and/or criminal judicial processes,” Bettison-Varga wrote.
Ferry said that the nature of any college disciplinary action “would depend which policy someone violated.”