When Kerri Dunn, a visiting professor of social psychology at Claremont McKenna College, participated in a campus forum regarding hate crimes, she gave students and other school officials more than they bargained for.

Apparently, upon returning to her car after the forum, she found that her car had been vandalized. The windows were smashed in; the tires were slashed; and obscenities such as “nigger-lover” and “whore” were written in black spray paint on her vehicle.

As one might expect, Dunn reported the vandalism to the police and school officials, who cancelled classes at Claremont McKenna and six other colleges in the system. The reason? To allow students and faculty to protest the alleged hate crime.

Meanwhile, police officials responded by conducting an investigation, in which two eye-witnesses came forward and identified Dunn as the perpetrator of the crime. Yes, they claim to have seen Dunn vandalizing her own car. Though Dunn claimed to be “outraged” at such accusations, officials report that there had been inconsistencies in her story from the beginning …

All of this makes one wonder what Dunn was thinking. Was she simply crazy or seeking attention? Or was she trying to prove her point, that  the authorities would pay more attention to other issues — such as this conspiracy — rather than hate crimes that were happening on campus?

I assume that much like Kevin Spacey’s character in The Life of David Gale, Dunn was trying to prove her point. But it is unclear whether the spectacle she has created at Claremont McKenna is achieving her desired results. That is, she now stands to lose her job and has lost the respect of students and colleagues who consider her a liar. Where does the line begin and end for activists? And can sacrificing oneself for the cause ultimately undercut the cause? Or is  it the thought — the politics — that counts?

Laura Nathan-Garner