CONTENT WARNING: This article contains references to self-harm.
Thursday, Apr. 1, Provost Peggy Agouris held open office hours via Zoom, inviting students to discuss campus issues such as non-tenure eligible faculty and the issue regarding the pass/fail policy. However, a brief exchange with student Aidan White ’23 over mental health concerns sent shockwaves through the College of William and Mary community, leading to widespread outrage and a Change.org petition for Agouris’ removal.
The news spread to students when White posted a tweet, recapping the exchange.
“Just got off Provost Agouris’s office hours,” White wrote. “When I said that I was concerned that my friends would engage in self-harm because of the stress of this semester, she said ‘give me a break’ and LAUGHED.”
The tweet has been retweeted over 127 times and holds 497 likes as of Friday, Apr. 2. White originally went to Agouris’ office hours on behalf of the College Socialists’ labor committee, intending to ask about NTE faculty contracts. However, the conversation eventually shifted to the administration’s decision not to expand the pass/fail policy this semester. White recalls that many students had attended the office hours to talk about pass/fail, but Agouris did not seem responsive to student concerns when the topic arose.
“As soon as pass/fail came up, the energy of the call became very weird,” White said. “Prior to that, the provost had listened to our questions in full, and then given full responses, and then just moved on to the next student. But when that first student started talking about pass/fail, she actually interrupted him and started to ask us questions instead.”
Megan Fleeharty ’24 was also on the call and echoed these sentiments, explaining that students felt they weren’t being heard.
“I was disappointed with a lot of the answers that were given, because I feel like they weren’t fully addressing the concerns of the students to begin with,” Fleeharty said. “Leading up to the comment, I did feel like it was starting to get kind of hostile, and that there was frustration on both sides with what was being said. Students felt like they weren’t being listened to, and it did seem like the provost was kind of upset that students were pushing back.”
As for the contentious exchange itself, it all started with a debate over the College’s priorities, with some students alleging that the College administration cares more about the school’s reputation, rather than the mental health of its students.
“I expressed concern that the reputation of the university was part of the discussion at all,” White said. “I said that we should be prioritizing student mental health over the reputation of the university. She gave a very long response to that, we kind of had a back-and-forth for a few minutes, and at the end of one of her long responses, she said something to me along the lines of ‘what are you so worried about?’
This, White recalls, was the point where things got out of hand.
“She had given a very long response, and all I replied with was ‘I’m worried my friends are going to kill themselves,’” White said. “And she immediately said, ‘give me a break,’ and then she followed that up by saying something along the lines of, ‘why do you all think that pass/fail is going to fix everything that’s wrong at this school?’”
“She had given a very long response, and all I replied with was ‘I’m worried my friends are going to kill themselves,’” White said. “And she immediately said, ‘give me a break,’ and then she followed that up by saying something along the lines of, ‘why do you all think that pass/fail is going to fix everything that’s wrong at this school?’”
This one phrase — “give me a break” — became the focus of much student discourse, with some students seeing it as a dismissal of mental health concerns. Fleeharty also recalls this exchange, noting that she saw the provost’s reaction as one of confusion and mockery.
“The conversation leading up to it was about the school’s reputation, because at one point in the call, she had mentioned that the reputation of the university needed to be upheld, and later on, Aidan brought that back up, and was pushing back that she was considering the reputation of the university,” Fleeharty said. “And I remember her seeming kind of confused, and asking why we didn’t care about the reputation of the university. And then Aidan responded that what he did care about was that he was worried that he had friends who were going to kill themselves because they were so stressed about the situation. And then she said, ‘oh give me a break,’ and seemed kind of mocking about it, like she laughed and seemed confused that he had brought that up.”
However, Agouris disputes this claim, arguing that her reaction was one of shock at the suggestion that the College prioritizes its reputation over student well-being.
“It was a spontaneous reaction to a feeling of horrification that I felt, that there was a perception of us prioritizing other things over the well-being of our students,” Agouris said. “This is what happened, and context is very critical here.”
“It was a spontaneous reaction to a feeling of horrification that I felt, that there was a perception of us prioritizing other things over the well-being of our students,” Agouris said. “This is what happened, and context is very critical here.”
Indeed, Agouris emphasizes the context of the interaction as one moment in a much longer discussion.
“It was a conversation that lasted an hour and a half, and we talked about a lot of things, and a lot of things were said, and the things that were said were always — I thought — within a very nice and civil conversation, to which we were both sides trying to understand each other and find common ground,” Agouris said.
In an email sent to the student body shortly after the incident, Agouris emphasized that her interaction with White had been taken out of this context.
“One student suggested that we’ve prioritized the reputation of the university over the mental health of students, to which I strongly disagreed,” Agouris wrote in the email. “It is disheartening that my disagreement has since been misrepresented.”
Despite Agouris’ argument that her words were not meant to be dismissive, some students still found her reaction shocking.
“I thought it was horrific. I was genuinely really shocked that she had said that, especially because earlier in the call, multiple students had expressed their mental health concerns for this semester, and had had a very personal and honest conversation about how they were struggling and how they knew people who were struggling, and had been really open about that,” Fleeharty said.
For White, Agouris’ comment fed into a larger pattern of the College administration disregarding students’ mental health.
“Throughout all of the student organizing about getting more pass/fail options, we have consistently been saying that the administration is not prioritizing our mental health,” White said. “And the administration, on the other hand, has consistently been responding with, ‘yes we are prioritizing your mental health, we just don’t think pass/fail is the best way to address that.’ So to have the provost so directly show disdain to a student who was expressing concerns related to mental health and self-harm sort of confirmed all of the suspicions that many of us had had for weeks and months and even years.”
However, Agouris emphasized that this is not the case.
“I don’t know what kind of person would make light of something as serious as this,” Agouris said. “I have never reacted disrespectfully to anyone that I have had conversations with. I would never even dream of minimizing and trivializing an issue like this, that is critical and important and that we all are facing.”
Vice President for Student Affairs Ginger Ambler ’88 Ph.D. ’06, who was also on the office hours call, also underscored the College’s commitment to student mental health, pointing to resources like the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center that students can utilize.
“In my tenure as vice president, the number one priority has been student well-being,” Ambler said. “That has defined our work over the last decade.”
As for the allegations that she was not listening to student concerns, Agouris argues that she was simply pointing out alternative options.
“I feel it is important to understand that we have been working on options for students to help them, and we have been working nonstop, tirelessly, for a long period of time,” Agouris said. “So what I was trying to communicate was that there are other options we are working on which we’ll be announcing next week to help alleviate the pressure, the stress and the exhaustion our students are feeling.”
Students have created a petition calling for Agouris’ resignation or removal, which has amassed over 1,400 signatures. For students like Fleeharty, the petition signals their outrage at the perceived disregard for mental health.
“I think that the provost either needs to resign or be fired over the comments, because I think the people in charge of the school need to be concerned about the well-being of the students, and it seems like she’s not, based on those comments,” Fleeharty said.
Agouris, too, has seen the petition, but plans to continue her office hours with students.
“I have seen the petition, it is disheartening, but as always, I welcome talking directly with students during my office hours and beyond,” Agouris said. “It is based on a misrepresentation of the conversation we had with the student, but as I said, I hear the frustration, I hear the concern, I feel that we’re living through very tough times, and our senses and reactions are really heightened, but not to the point where they make us different from who we are, and I’m horrified by this, but I remain committed to open interaction and building a relationship and a sense of trust.”
Despite the conflict over the provost’s remarks, White emphasizes that this interaction has led to a broader discussion of the semester’s pass/fail policy and students’ mental health, one that has reached all corners of campus.
“This petition and all of the efforts around pass/fail have been a team effort that goes beyond the core set of student organizers,” White said. “It also involves the 1,400 students who signed the petition for a referendum, and the 2,000 students who signed the change.org petition, and all of the faculty who have sent us emails of support. This is a massive team effort, and it’s been incredible to see how quickly solidarity can spread across campus, but it’s also been disheartening to see how little that solidarity means to the administration.”
The Flat Hat would like to disclose that White has previously written for the paper, but his role in the story is not in any way affiliated with the publication.
