Despite a formal ethics complaint and multiple warning signs, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration has continued to employ Dean Caldera – in fact, over the last few days Stanford has been covering up Dean Caldera’s misconduct by deleting information about her.

Here is a brief summary:

• In the four years after President Tessier-Lavigne promoted Dean Caldera to Lead Residence Dean and Associate Dean of Students, at least nine students have died by suicide – a Stanford record.

• Two weeks ago, Dean Caldera was named as a defendant in the Katie Meyer wrongful death lawsuit. Katie Meyer died by suicide months away from graduation following an OCS charge initiated by Dean Caldera related to a coffee spill.

• Dean Caldera has posted troubling social media content including one text that read, “you can cut their face with your wedding ring.”

• Dean Caldera runs a college consulting business offering “individualized college admissions assistance” for ~$4,500 an applicant.

• At the time of most student suicides, Dean Caldera’s official suicide prevention credentials were expired according to her now-deleted LinkedIn.

• In November 2018, Dean Caldera gave a presentation to the Stanford board on the university’s new alcohol policies. A year later Stanford had record alcohol-related hospitalizations.

• Dean Caldera has alluded to financial problems and in 2018 the California Office of Tax Appeals denied her appeal over wrongfully claimed tax credits and “found no error in the FTB’s action in assessing the additional tax and interest.”

• In early 2019 a Vice Provost at Stanford gave Dean Caldera a recommendation for a job at the University of California, Riverside.

• In June 2020, the Stanford Ethics and Compliance helpline received a formal complaint against Dean Caldera. Stanford determined the complaint “did not fall under Stanford policy.”

• In July 2020, 19 Stanford board members were made aware of the Ethics complaint against Dean Lisa Caldera. No action was taken.

• In March 2022, the Stanford Ethics and Compliance helpline and the Office of Chairman Jerry Yang received a follow-up complaint about Dean Caldera. No action was taken.

• Following the Katie Meyer wrongful death lawsuit, Stanford twice modified Dean Caldera’s professional page and then recently deleted most of her info and photo.

• President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration continues to employ Dean Caldera as a leading administrator to “assist students in crisis.”

• My investigation into Dean Lisa Caldera and Stanford misconduct remains ongoing. Please contact me at edwin@585research.com or @StockJabber on Twitter to share additional information.

I first met Dean Lisa Caldera on October 22, 2019, in a room atop Tresidder Memorial Union. She had emailed me at 8:48pm the day before, just six hours after I filed a formal grievance with President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration, to set up our one-on-one meeting.

Dean Caldera’s first questions were: “Why did you copy the President and Provost on your grievance?” and “What did you think would happen?” Dean Caldera indicated they asked her to “look into” my formal, and supposedly confidential, complaint. Things went downhill quickly from there, and I left the meeting with Dean Lisa Caldera feeling deeply disturbed.

Over the next few weeks Provost Persis Drell, Dean Caldera, and a low-level administrator, Klarese Donnelly, ran a retaliation campaign against me — so much so that I ended up living in a motel during my senior year. Shortly after I received my diploma I filed a formal ethics complaint against Provost Drell, Dean Caldera, and Ms. Donnelly. It read, in part,

“The weeks after I filed my November 2, 2019 appeal with Provost Drell were the worst and toughest weeks of my life. It is difficult to put into words how desperate I was…”

In an email for my complaint, I noted that Dean Caldera’s conduct “leads to a higher likelihood that Stanford students in distress commit suicide.” The seventeen-page complaint mentioned Dean Caldera eleven times and was sent to Stanford’s Ethics Office, the Compliance Office, and Stanford’s then-Chairman Jeff Raikes. In addition, I forwarded a copy of the complaint to eight Stanford board members and President Tessier-Lavigne.

Below is a copy of my June 2020 formal Ethics Complaint email against Dean Lisa Caldera:

In response, Stanford’s Ethics and Compliance Helpline confirmed receiving my complaint against Dean Caldera:

Two weeks later, without interviewing me, the Ethics Office ended the investigation and only concluded “your claims of retaliation do not fall under the University’s Non-Retaliation policy.” Stanford never provided a reason.

On July 30, 2020, after the Ethics and Compliance Office essentially ignored my complaint, I emailed 19 Stanford board members and wrote, in bold,

“I believe the Stanford administration is preventing a real investigation because the misconduct involves senior administrators.”

No one responded. In the two years since President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration ignored my formal ethics complaints about Dean Caldera, four students under Dean Caldera died by suicide.

Following the additional deaths, I submitted another complaint about Dean Caldera to the Stanford Ethics Office, former Chairman Jeff Raikes, and the Office of Current Chairman Jerry Yang. I wrote, in bold,

“Dr. Caldera continues to violate Stanford policy and Stanford’s inaction will lead to more student suicides.”

Chairman Jerry Yang and President Tessier-Lavigne’s Administration again ignored my ethics complaint about Dean Caldera.

Dean Caldera is now the defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit of Stanford soccer star Katie Meyer. That lawsuit, filed in the Santa Clara County Superior Court two weeks ago, has gained national attention and highlights questionable conduct from Dean Caldera. USA Today first reported that Dean Caldera chose to charge Katie Meyer with an Office of Community Standards violation after she spilled coffee on a football player who allegedly sexually assaulted her 17-year-old teammate. USA Today reported:

“The football player, who was not identified by name in the lawsuit, indicated throughout the disciplinary process that he would like to ‘make amends’ and did not want any punishment that would ‘impact’ Meyer’s life, according to the complaint.

Lisa Caldera, the Dean of Residential Education, brought the complaint against Meyer to Stanford’s Office of Community Standards, according to the lawsuit, which said Meyer was charged on the final possible day. A charge must be brought within six months of the occurrence and the spilled coffee occurred on August 28, 2021, according to the complaint.

Caldera and Stanford President Marc Tessier-Lavigne are among those named as defendants.”

Katie Meyer died by suicide within hours of receiving the OCS charge letter.

Dean Lisa Caldera didn’t seem too worried about that case. In fact, just two days before Katie Meyer died by suicide, Dean Caldera was celebrating on Instagram about the success of her “college admissions assistance” consulting business. Dean Caldera wrote, in part,

“Waking up to 1 year of Caldera College Coaching & Consulting was so amazing!! Girl power, facials, and Starbucks… #CalderaCommunity”

Below is a page from Dean Caldera’s marketing material for a $4,500 package offering “intensive individualized college admissions assistance.”

Dean Caldera also had a Google Doc onboarding form for new clients and offered “a highly personalized experience.”

On Instagram, Dean Caldera has also shared a direct deposit link to her Venmo bank account so customers have “an easy way to connect to my services.”

On the intake form for Caldera College Consulting, customers can suggest time availability Monday-Sunday in the Morning, Midday, Afternoon, and Evening.

In a one-year anniversary post, Dean Caldera disclosed having about 30 clients. Another post from Caldera College Consulting shows the Stanford Women’s Softball team, a picture of athletes wearing Stanford gear, and an image of the roster. The post reads, “taking a moment to shine a light on our student-athletes.”

Dean Caldera’s relationship with Stanford athletics may be helpful for her other jobs. In addition to being a Stanford Dean, running a blossoming college admissions business, and being a content creator and freelance blogger, Dean Caldera is also a player agent for the Fremont Football league and a Vice President for the Fremont Centerville Little League organization.

Dean Caldera’s outside commitments may be interfering with her work at Stanford.

An example of Dean Caldera’s oversight can be found in the basement of Crothers Hall, where an imposter student was found after he “lived in the basement for weeks” and was caught after stealing a television. Crothers Hall is part of neighborhood N, one of the two Stanford neighborhoods Dean Caldera was directly responsible for.

Dean Caldera was also responsible for cultivating safe drinking policies on campus and in November 2018 Dean Caldera and Vice Provost Susie Brubaker-Cole presented a “Student Alcohol Case Study” to the Stanford Board of Trustees. One year later, Stanford’s alcohol policies were criticized amid record student hospitalizations.

Below, a photo of Dean Caldera:

The most important part of Dean Caldera’s job is preventing student suicides. According to her resume, she “provides strategic direction for undergraduate case management” and “resolves high-level, high-profile, high-need student issues.”

About two years into President Tessier-Lavigne’s tenure as President, Dean Caldera was promoted to Lead Resident Dean with oversight for “all undergraduate crisis response and case management for 7,000 students.”

In Dean Caldera’s four-year tenure as Lead Residence Dean at least nine students have died by suicide, a Stanford record. During the 16-year administration of former President John Hennessey, only six students died.

One reason for the record Stanford student suicides under Dean Caldera may be that both Dean Caldera’s credentials for suicide prevention are expired, with her QPR for Suicide Prevention expiring in February 2017.

Dean Caldera’s other major credentials are a master’s of education in college student affairs and a doctorate in higher education administration from Azusa Pacific University, one of the largest Christian universities in the country with a 94% acceptance rate. In a deleted Instagram post, Dean Caldera wrote, in part, that “I had to take some classes over again because it was so difficult.”

Dean Caldera’s LinkedIn was recently deleted.

Dean Caldera’s social media presence also gives a glimpse into an aggressive demeanor that may contribute to record student deaths. For example, in one now-deleted Instagram post, Dean Caldera appeared to share long advice texts and circled for emphasis a paragraph reading,

“Go out there and do your thing. You’ve worked 15 years to show them that you can sling. You can cut their face with your wedding ring.”

Not all of Dean Caldera’s social content is disturbing. One of Dean Caldera’s older marketing posts is titled, in part, “My mind on my money and my money on my mind.” Dean Caldera writes,

“The recurring theme in my college experience was believing that I never had enough money… I am still working to heal my relationship with money.”

Dean Caldera may also be working to heal her relationship with taxes.

In a 2018 case, the California Franchise Tax Board alleged that an audit of Dean Caldera’s taxes found she wrongly claimed a Young Infant Credit carryover. Dean Caldera appealed the case to the California Office of Tax Appeals. In a unanimous opinion, the Honorable Teresa A. Stanley, the Honorable Alberto T. Rosas, and the Honorable Amanda Vassigh ruled against Dean Lisa Caldera and wrote, in part,

“In their appeal, appellants claimed they were misguided by their online tax filing service… There is no reasonable cause exception to the legal requirement to pay taxes on all income after accounting for valid deductions and credits… Accordingly, we find no error in the FTB’s action in assessing the additional tax and interest.” (Office of Tax Appeals Case No. 18010772)

Stanford may have been aware of issues with Dean Caldera well before my June 2020 Ethics Complaint. In early 2019, Dean Caldera applied to be the Dean of Students for the University of California, Riverside. According to Dean Caldera’s application documents, Dean Caldera received a nomination for the position by Dr. Brenda McComb, Stanford’s former Associate Vice Provost. Dean Caldera didn’t get the job.

Today, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration seems to know they have a problem with Dean Caldera.

On or around 2:22am ET on November 29, eight days after the Katie Meyer wrongful death lawsuit listed Dean Caldera as a defendant, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration changed Dean Caldera’s official Stanford page to say Dean Caldera was responsible for neighborhoods A, N, R + S, instead of just neighborhoods N + R.

Later, on or around 5:33am ET on November 30, Dean Caldera’s official Stanford page was changed again to modify her neighborhood responsibilities from “A, N, R + S” to “A +N / R +S”

This may be a sign that the Administration will claim Dean Caldera alternates between these neighborhoods (A + N vs R +S) on certain days – and therefore may not be responsible for a particular neighborhood on a particular day.

On or around the morning on December 3, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration deleted all bibliographic information from Dean Caldera’s official page and also deleted her photograph.

After the Katie Meyer wrongful death lawsuit was filed, Dean Caldera also deleted her professional LinkedIn as well as Instagram and Facebook pages for her college admissions consulting business. Later Dean Caldera also deleted a separate intake form for her college admission consulting clients.

In sum, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration was made aware multiple times through official channels of potential misconduct by Dean Caldera and did nothing. And after Dean Caldera was connected to multiple student deaths and multiple ethics complaints, no one in President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration did even the most basic diligence into Dean Caldera’s activities. And then once these problems became public President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration and Dean Caldera began destroying the evidence of misconduct.

Shortly before President Marc Tessier-Lavigne became President, a speaker at Stanford’s series on great leadership gave a talk titled, “Leaders Must Be Honest” and said,

“Leadership is broken around the world. Right now, leadership is broken. Broken in our political system. It’s broken in many corporations. If you look at the set of things that have played out in corporations in the last few years, where the CEO knew about what was going on, it’s broken. It’s broken because people don’t like to tell the truth when the truth is difficult.”

That talk was given by John Hennessy, Stanford’s former President.

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This article represents the opinions of Edwin Dorsey. You can reach the author by email at edwin@585research.com or @StockJabber on Twitter. Please subscribe to the email list for future articles.

President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration might be playing a role in causing student deaths.

Here is a brief summary:

• Stanford Dean Lisa Caldera is the lead Dean in charge of “students in distress” and preventing student suicides. Dean Caldera also runs a side consulting business offering “individualized college admissions assistance” for upwards of $4,000 an applicant.

• Dean Caldera offers a wide variety of “admission assistance” packages as well as hourly consulting and has alluded to ties with Stanford athletics.

• On March 1, 2022, Stanford student Katie Meyer died by suicide. During that time, Dean Caldera was running a raffle for her side consulting business.

• In June 2020, Stanford’s Ethics Office and Stanford’s Chairman received a formal Ethics complaint about Dean Caldera and the potential for more student suicides. Stanford never followed up.

• Five students have died by suicide since President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration and Chairman Jeff Raikes ignored the ethics complaint about Dean Caldera.

• President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration may have misled parents about the causes of some Stanford student deaths.

• Two Stanford faculty are currently suing the University after their son, Eitan Weiner, died in a fraternity bathroom. The lawsuit alleges Eitan “died as a result of Stanford's knowing and intentional failure to follow its own policies and procedures.”

• President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration publicly criticized the lawsuit and called the allegations “unfounded.”

• An investigative document never previously published appears to contradict Stanford’s statements regarding Eitan’s death. The document alleges a Stanford Residence Dean marked Eitan’s initial overdose as a “non-priority” and waffled on calling 911.

• The main Residence Dean in that case, John Giammalva, has also been accused of repeated misconduct in 2018 litigation filed by Disability Rights Advocates, a non-profit group that sued Stanford over its treatment of students with mental health struggles. Dean Giammalva continued to be employed by Stanford after the 2018 litigation and continued to be employed after Eitan’s death.

• In another case, a student used the word “suicide” over 100 times in an essay. That student later died and the death was classified “an accident” by President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration.

• President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration has fired some student support staff for financial reasons and is now installing surveillance cameras outside all student residences.

• In May 2021 WSCUC, Stanford’s accreditation regulator, launched a formal investigation into President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration.

• In an unsigned and undated letter, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration lied repeatedly to WSCUC investigators.

• President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration forged and destroyed critical case notes and fired a low-level administrator that spoke out against the administration’s misconduct.

• During the six-year administration of Presider Tessier-Lavigne and Provost Drell, twelve students have died. During the 16-year administration of their predecessors, only six students died*  

• Anyone with additional information can contact me at: edwin@585research.com, the Stanford Board at: boardoffice@stanford.edu, and WSCUC’s President here.

Overseeing dozens of staff responsible for student well-being at Stanford is Dean Lisa Caldera. In interviews, Dean Caldera speaks passionately about being “invested in caring for students through critical life and college experiences.” In her job description, she is responsible for “connecting students in crisis with appropriate resources [and] development of student staff training programs.”

In an interview with Stanford News, Dean Caldera said,

“Each day I rise, it is with the intent to learn more about myself and to help support one more student than I did the day before.”

The article notes that Dean Caldera is also “a vinyl record enthusiast and a passionate gardener who grows pumpkins each year.”

More recently Dean Caldera has developed another hobby: college admissions consulting.

On Instagram and Facebook, Dean Caldera has dedicated pages for a variety of services including “coaching, consulting, and content development.” Dean Caldera’s Instagram also links to another site hosted on the “milkshake app.” That site has higher-touch services offered by Dean Caldera. For example, for $4,500 college applicants can get the “Inspire Membership” which includes “individualized college admissions assistance.”

Dean Caldera’s post adds that “flexible payment options are available.” At the bottom of the milkshake app page for the “Inspire Membership” is an option to schedule an initial consultation. That button takes customers to a private Google Doc onboarding form welcoming them to “the Caldera Community.” It begins, “We want your college planning process to be a highly personalized experience.”

On the intake form for Caldera College Consulting, customers can suggest time availability Monday-Sunday in the Morning, Midday, Afternoon, and Evening. On Instagram Dean Caldera has also shared a direct deposit link to her Venmo bank account so customers have “an easy way to connect to my services.”

In a one-year anniversary post, Dean Caldera disclosed having about 30 clients. Another post from Caldera College Consulting shows the Stanford Women’s Softball team, a picture of athletes wearing Stanford gear, and an image of the roster. The post reads, “taking a moment to shine a light on our student-athletes.”

One of Dean Caldera’s older marketing posts is titled, in part, “My mind on my money and my money on my mind.” Dean Caldera writes, “The recurring theme in my college experience was believing that I never had enough money… I am still working to heal my relationship with money.”

Dean Caldera’s moneymaking “college admission assistance consulting” may be interfering with her main job preventing Stanford student suicides.

For example, a February 26 2022 Instagram post from Dean Caldera reads, in part,

“Waking up to 1 year of Caldera College Coaching & Consulting was so amazing!! Girl power, facials, and Starbucks… #CalderaCommunity”

Three days later, Katie Meyer, a Stanford student RA under Dean Caldera, died by suicide. Katie was a Stanford soccer star and months away from graduation. Her death was the fourth Stanford suicide that year. In an interview with NBC News, the Meyer family talked about Katie’s death and said they believed it was triggered by an email over a disciplinary infraction:

“The last couple days are a parent’s worst nightmare and you don’t wake up from it… We have not seen that email yet. She had been getting letters for a couple months. This letter was kind of the final letter that there was going to be before ‘a trial.’ This is the only thing we can come up with that triggered something…We are just struggling right now. We are just struggling to know what happened and why it happened.”

Dee Mostofi, Assistant Vice President of External Communications at Stanford, told media outlets, "We are not able to share information about confidential student disciplinary matters."

Stanford’s former Chairman, Jeff Raikes, tweeted that he was “shocked and saddened to learn of Katie’s passing.” In a March 8 Facebook post Stanford said, “Over this difficult period, we have watched as the Stanford community has come together to help each other through the truly unimaginable.”

In June 2020, I filed an Ethics complaint with Stanford’s Ethics Office, Stanford’s Compliance Helpline, and Stanford’s then-Chairman Jeff Raikes about Dean Caldera and some of Stanford’s disciplinary staff. The email warned of the potential for more student suicides and said, in bold,

“The residence deans view students in distress as a problem to contain rather than a person to help. This leads to a higher likelihood that Stanford students in distress commit suicide.”

Stanford confirmed receiving the complaint and said they were investigating. Two weeks later, without ever contacting me, the Stanford Ethics Office said it “considered the matter closed” because my claims did not fall under Stanford policy.

The Stanford Ethics Office refused to explain its decision, never requested information from me, and stopped responding. In March 2022, I sent another email to the Stanford Ethics Office, former Chairman Jeff Raikes, and the Office of Current Chairman Jerry Yang. It said,

“Dean Caldera continues to violate Stanford policy and Stanford’s inaction will lead to more student suicides. Please let me know if anyone at Stanford is available to talk. I’m [phone number].”

Chairman Jerry Yang, ex-Chairman Jeff Raikes, and the Stanford Ethics Office didn’t respond.

The Stanford Dean responsible for preventing suicides has been subject to a formal ethics complaint, runs a side “college admission assistance” consulting business, had a student RA commit suicide, and has overseen a record-setting student death rate — and President Tessier-Lavigne has done nothing. Why?

One reason could be these problems run deep — too deep.

For example, look to the Santa Clara County Superior Court, where two Stanford faculty filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Stanford for the death of their son in a Stanford fraternity bathroom. Their son, Eitan Weiner, died as a 19-year-old Stanford Sophomore after an accidental overdose from fentanyl-laced Percocet pills.

The lawsuit claims Eitan “died as a result of Stanford's knowing and intentional failure to follow its own policies and procedures.” The lawsuit highlights that Eitan initially overdosed on January 15, 2020. However, Stanford administrators waffled on calling 911 after learning of the first overdose and, after Eitan overdosed a second time, he was discovered dead in a bathroom by janitorial staff on January 17.

Eitan’s sister, a Stanford graduate, told ABC News the family decided to file the wrongful death lawsuit right before the statute of limitations expired because:

“We knew Stanford was going to get to a point where they weren’t going to be compelled by any means to do anything and this was our last option.”

In a public January 2022 press release on Stanford News, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration responded aggressively to the lawsuit writing, in part,

“Criticisms of the actions of our professional staff, in this case, are unfounded; their actions were timely and reasonable based on the information they had at the time… it is not accurate that Stanford failed to take appropriate actions following Eitan’s death.”

An Internal Stanford Investigative Appeal Document, never previously published, appears to contradict the statements of President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration. The unsigned and undated document, which appears to be a report commissioned by the fraternity where Eitan died, finds numerous flaws.

The second page of the document states that once the RA learned of the overdose, he contacted the Residence Dean responsible for the fraternity, John Giammalva, who “chose not to get involved” because “he was off work.”

Instead, according to the investigative document, the overdose was referred to Residence Dean E.J. (“Emma”) Madarasz. However, she marked the overdose as a “non-priority” and referred the matter back to Dean Giammalva to handle the next day.

Ultimately, according to the document, alarm bells went off when the unisex bathroom door was found locked at 11pm on January 16. 11 hours later, Stanford custodial staff used a master key to open the door and found Eitan Weiner’s dead body.

The document also mentioned that “there is no evidence the University has taken any steps to address the failure of the two Stanford Residence Deans to intervene.” A footnote in the document mentions another investigatory report that reportedly found, “Stanford employees did virtually nothing.”

This is not the first time Residence Dean John Giammalva has been involved in controversy.

In May 2018, Disability Rights Advocates, a non-profit group, sued Stanford over its treatment of students with mental health struggles. The lawsuit centers around a mandatory leave policy enforced by President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration that forces depressed students to leave campus, often against their own wishes.

The lawsuit mentions Giammalva repeatedly. In one case, Giammalva allegedly threatened to ban one student from his dormitory – that student later asked hospital staff to be present when Giammalva was around.

Another student alleged Giammalva coerced him into signing a leave of absence form while hospitalized.

Residence Dean Giammalva continued to be employed after the May 2018 lawsuit alleging repeated misconduct, continued to be employed after Eitan’s January 2020 death, and was allowed to quietly depart Stanford in July 2021.

Likewise, E.J. (“Emma”) Madarasz continued to be employed after Eitan’s January 2020 death and departed in May 2021 after less than two years. On her LinkedIn, she cited her experience in “high stress crisis management scenarios where execution and confidentiality are imperative.”

In sum, 1) An internal Stanford document finds repeated failure by Stanford staff, 2) Both Giammalva and Madarasz quietly depart Stanford, 3) Giammalva has been accused of past misconduct, and 4) the Dean overseeing all this, Lisa Caldera, has been the subject of an ethics complaint. Despite this, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration released a public statement in January 2022 chastising the lawsuit from two Stanford faculty over their dead son and called any criticism “unfounded.”

These are no isolated incidents. On March 7 2019 Stanford cyclist Kelly Caitlin died by suicide in what was her second suicide attempt that year. Between the first suicide attempt and the second one, Stanford denied Kelly access to two psychologists she requested on campus. Mark Caitlin, her father, told the San Francisco Chronicle,

“I am sorry, but they could have done more for Kelly, enough to save her life.”

In a different case, a Stanford student wrote an essay for Stanford Professor Christopher Kamrath that used the word “suicide” over 100 times. That student later died and the death was classified “an accident” by President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration.

President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration has made the situation worse with mandatory leaves and forced hospitalizations. These policies lower legal risk for President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration, but often leave distressed students unable to trust Stanford.

In March 2021, the Stanford Daily interviewed students about whether they felt comfortable sharing mental health issues under President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration. According to the article, none did:

“Out of the ten students interviewed by The Daily, all said they had experienced suicidal ideation or thoughts of self-harm. When asked if they would consider sharing these concerns with a [Stanford] clinician all said they would not over fears surrounding the University’s involuntary leave policy.”

Last month, the Stanford Daily polled the Stanford community again. Here’s what they said:

“Mental health at Stanford is an afterthought. The administration’s neglect is single-handedly responsible for my breakdown. I spent 45 minutes on hold with [Stanford] during an emergency trying to get help before my parents rushed to get me.” — Sophomore

“I don’t feel supported at all by the mental health resources and staff at Stanford. I think the support they advertise for mental health is all a façade.” — Sophomore

“The mental health resources at the University are abysmal.” — Ph.D. student

“No help when we needed it — had to fly out from the East Coast to save my son myself.” — Parent

“I got upset and hung up on the crisis line. They didn’t call back or follow up in any way.” — Co-term/master's student

“I've never experienced a place that talks the talk so hard but can't begin to walk the walk. It's really saddening, and it's ultimately perpetuated by the school's administration.” — Senior

On April 21, the Stanford Daily editorial staff published a column about Stanford’s crisis titled,

“Letter from the editors: Something needs to change.”

That same day, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration announced changes to install cameras across student residential buildings:

“Beginning this summer, Stanford will install security cameras at several residential buildings… Future project phases will cover more residences, ultimately leading to cameras outside all student residences.”

The camera surveillance changes drew sharp criticism from Stanford’s Faculty Senate.

On a similar note, leaked emails show a Vice Provost under Provost Drell wrote that some student support positions were being eliminated because “we have identified more efficient ways to complete financial transactions in a timely fashion.” The email noted, “we appreciate your… willingness to be collaborative, innovative, flexible, intentional, reflective, and excellent in supporting fellow students.”

Deaths are preventable if Stanford meets student distress with compassion, instead President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration fights loneliness with surveillance, listlessness with bureaucracy, and depression with involuntary expulsions.

People need love the most when they deserve it the least — President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration has demonstrated the opposite.

Because the Stanford Ethics Office did not engage with my complaints in June 2020, I reached out to the Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General. The case agent within the Department of Education recommended I take my concerns to WSCUC, Stanford’s powerful regulator and accreditation commission. 

In September 2020, I filed a formal complaint against Stanford to end “the long history of senseless suffering inflicted by Stanford’s Provost, Persis Drell, and her administration.”

President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration responded in an unsigned letter that I believe was designed to mislead regulators. The letter lies about the date of certain events, lies about the materiality of events, lies about the nature of events, lies by omission, and created a fiction to deceive regulators.

Not only did President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration deceive WSCUC regulators, but the two and only original investigative case notes that provided a direct glimpse into the matter were destroyed and forged. It is unlikely that this is an isolated incident. In addition, the one administrator that went against President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration was later “laid off” around the time I raised public criticism.

In a May 2021 letter to WSCUC regulators, President Tessier-Lavigne’s administration wrote,

“Mr. Dorsey’s complaints were thoroughly investigated and found to be without merit… the University did not continue to engage with him regarding this matter.”

Stanford now has the highest student death rate of any WSCUC-accredited University. Its WSCUC accreditation is up for review this coming academic year.

Persis Drell must resign as Stanford’s Provost. Marc Tessier-Lavigne must resign as Stanford’s President.

Join the fight for accountability:

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If you have information you would like to share, please contact me at edwin@585research.com or the Stanford Board at boardoffice@stanford.edu

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

*Stanford student death rate was calculated based on memorial declarations and excluded deaths outside the sphere of Stanford and its programs such as deaths due to terminal illnesses unrelated to Stanford, like brain cancer, or car crashes. This article represents the opinions of Edwin Dorsey.

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