[grellas]

Excellent additions - thanks for supplementing/clarifying!

Another note or two:

1. Damages might be reduced on appeal but, if not, this will really sting for Oberlin. Why?

2. Its insurer apparently is denying coverage because the wrongs committed were intentional and that removes them from coverage.

3. The legal fee award approved by the jury is likely tied to a contingent fee arrangement and will likely add as much as $10 million to the final price tag.

Bottom line for the risk to Oberlin: $11.4 million compensatory damages; $22.8 million punitive damages; $10 million attorneys' fees = $44.2 million judgment, an astounding number for something the college could easily have quelled at or near inception for almost nothing. Again, this could be reversed or modified on appeal but who in the world would want to be fighting from that position?

[tptacek]

It's an insane situation. I have a generally high opinion of Oberlin as a school (my daughter was accepted there, and would have attended had she not wanted to remain closer to home; several friendly acquaintances are faculty there). I also --- broadly and with varying levels of intensity --- share the prevailing politics of its community. But the school's conduct here seems so simultaneously mendacious and clown-shoed that I can't help but think something's fundamentally screwed up about how it's run. I'm glad Oberlin wasn't closer to Chicago to tempt my daughter last year. I hope they figure stuff out.

[333c]

Another facet of this story that doesn't seem to be discussed much is that the college is having financial struggles as it is. The grievous mishandling of the event is not helping the financial situation. For more on that, see:

https://www.oberlin.edu/sites/default/files/content/about-ob...

https://www.oberlin.edu/about-oberlin/leadership-and-adminis...

(archives of the above)

https://web.archive.org/20190619230018/https://www.oberlin.e...

https://web.archive.org/20190619230022/https://www.oberlin.e...