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All 19 members of the Brooks Quimby Debate Council, a storied debate team at Bates College in Maine, have resigned from the club, The Lewiston Sun Journal reported Wednesday.
In an open letter explaining their resignations, BQDC’s members stated that the club’s faculty adviser and director of debate, rhetoric professor Sammi Rippetoe, had obstructed “the team’s ability to maintain an inclusive culture and compete.”
The letter enumerated harmful actions that Rippetoe allegedly took, including gossiping about students and BQDC members to other members of the team and “making disparaging remarks about the body odor of a South Asian debater to the rest of the team when they left the room.” The letter also claimed Rippetoe had failed to adequately perform her responsibilities as director of debate and that administrators had been dismissive of the team members’ concerns.
Rippetoe did not respond to the Sun Journal’s request for comment; the college told The Bates Student, its student newspaper, which first reported the resignations, that it would look into the matter.
