The committee chair was a woman named Dr. Voss, a political science professor whom Ren had looked up the previous day. 60 years old, 17 years at Harwick, a record of three published papers on institutional accountability in higher education. Ren had read all three of them on Wednesday night.
Dr. Voss called the room to order. She reviewed the procedural rules. Standard language. Ren listened and noted the things that would matter.
She looked at Derek while Voss was speaking. He was doing the thing he always did. Reading the room, assessing the audience. He had looked at the people in the corridor when he walked in, and she had seen the brief calculation in his eyes. The acknowledgment that this was larger than he had expected, followed by the particular kind of confidence that belongs to people who have been through institutional processes before and come out of them unchanged.
He was not worried. He had been here before. The structure had protected him before. He had not yet understood that the structure was different today.
The man in the suit leaned close to Derek and said something. Derek nodded.
Dr. Voss concluded the procedural overview.
"Mr. Stole," she said, "as the respondent, you will have the opportunity to present your account and call witnesses. I want to note for the record that the committee is aware that a request was made yesterday afternoon to postpone this hearing, and that request was denied by the student affairs office. This proceeding is moving forward on its scheduled timeline."
She looked at both tables. "We'll begin with the complainant's statement."
Ren stood.
She spoke clearly and without notes. She described Tuesday in the cafeteria. The exchange, the escalation, the slap. She described it the way you describe something you have decided to tell the truth about, without embellishment and without minimizing, which is the most precise language there is.
She described the threatening text she had received Wednesday evening and stated that she had documented it with a timestamp and was prepared to submit it to the committee.
She sat down.
Dr. Voss looked at Derek. "Mr. Stole, your response."
Derek stood.
He was polished. That was the only word for it. He had been prepared well. He expressed concern for the complainant's apparent distress. He used that word, "apparent," twice in the first paragraph. He described the cafeteria incident as a misunderstanding that had escalated beyond what either party had intended. He characterized Ren's statement to him, the four words she had said after the slap, as a threat directed at him. He expressed surprise that a complaint had been filed when, to his understanding, the situation had been difficult for everyone involved and could have been resolved without formal proceedings.