University of Denver Chancellor Rebecca Chopp blasted an email that was sent to hundreds of students and employees this week that she said was full of “inflammatory and derogatory remarks” aimed at the DU official who investigated a student who was suspended for using racist and homophobic slurs toward her classmates.
The student, Addison Puffer, just finished her freshman year at the university last spring when she was suspended for the fall 2018 semester for harassment, a violation of university policy. The school alleged Puffer used language that created “a hostile environment of divisiveness and disrespect” among peers.
The university said 13 students in Puffer’s dorm reported she a used racial epithet and profanity.
Puffer denied the allegations and appealed her suspension, saying she was targeted because she is a conservative. “I just feel I had a target on my back for my success and I was open about my political beliefs,” Puffer told The Denver Post in June.
The email, which was sent through an anonymous web-based service called Hushmail, was received by several hundred members of the DU community Tuesday night. It claimed to be from a Michael Feinman and was addressed to Samantha Harris of The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education — or FIRE — and lauded her May 4 letter that criticized the suspension of Puffer.
It also attacked Maria DeHowitt, an investigator with DU’s office of equal opportunity and Title IX, who handled the investigation of Puffer. The email called her a “failed attorney who graduated from a third-tier law school (DePaul University),” and who was a “Latina bully pit against a Caucasian scholar.”
Puffer, the message alleged, was forced to view a documentary on “white privilege” as a condition of returning to the university. “Outside the realm of radical, far-left hysteria, the term ‘white privilege’ has no meaning” other than to demean Puffer, the email said.
Chopp, in her statement, said it did not appear the email came from anyone on the DU campus. A university spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
“The email is full of inflammatory and derogatory remarks that have absolutely no merit,” Chopp said. “The language used to attack members of our community is reprehensible and counter to everything the University of Denver stands for in creating a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone can feel safe and welcome.”
The email is also filled with inaccurate statements and DU stands behinds its policy and processes related to any investigation, Chopp said. She also asked anyone with any information about the author of the email to contact the university.
