April 17, 2009
To the Colby Community:The Colby College Board of Trustees is stunned and saddened in the aftermath of the events of April 12.
On behalf of the board, I commend the students, faculty, staff, and administration of Colby for the many ways in which you have come together this week to discuss the difficult issues at hand.
The board believes, along with President Adams, that the investigation into what happened on April 12 must be both thorough and fair. To that end, we call for all involved to withhold demands for specific actions until the facts of this matter have been gathered and evaluated. We support the decision to immediately engage an impartial investigator to assist in the investigation. And, once the fact-finding portion of the investigation is concluded, we will ask the investigator to advise Colby on its policies and procedures with an eye to avoiding such incidents in the future.
The investigator will determine how best to go about his or her work, but we anticipate that members of the board, as well as members of every campus constituency, will participate, and we will strongly urge the investigator to be as inclusive as practically possible. We are certain that students, employees, parents, and alumni are as interested in getting to the bottom of things as is the board.
One word that has arisen many times this week is "accountability." The board agrees with those who insist that accountability must be part of the process - for the board itself and for every other Colby constituency. The board's own discussions will insist on it.
The board thanks everyone in the Colby community for their continued patience and participation as we move through the very difficult and critically important process in which we are all now engaged.
Joseph F. Boulos '68
Chair, Colby College Board of Trustees