How Low Will It Go? Trustee/Donor Au Pair Scandal Rocks Globalists at Williams College

As you may know, Joey Shaista Horn ’87 has resigned as a trustee of Williams College in the wake of a court decision in Norway to punish her and her husband for the mistreatment of two Filipino au pairs. This court decision was part of a larger effort which ensnared the Horn's and two of their neighbors in a clear cut violation of Norway's laws governing immigration and human-trafficking.

The new Horn Hall at Williams College is named after Ragnor '85 and
Joey Shaista Horn '87, a wealthy couple convicted of crimes in Norway.

The puzzle, of course, is why the board of trustees consented to naming the new Horn Hall after this nefarious couple even though news of their arrests was freely available as early as December 2014.

As far as I can piece this together, Joey Shaista Horn ’87 is not some out-of-touch, hands-off trustee. Instead, she seems deeply involved in the business of the college, particularly in terms of efforts to bring more international students, such as herself, to the campus. (When she was a student, she was president of the International Students Club and performed Indian classical dance.)

In one of the college's webpages, she is said to have "led the charge" to bring more international students to campus. See, https://alumni-awards.williams.edu/frederick-c-copeland-award/joey-shaista-horn-class-of-1987/

Based on my experience with non-profit boards, I suspect that Joey Shaista Horn ’87 is indeed, as one of her au pairs described her, a perfectionist. It seems reasonable to me that this character flaw is one of the reasons she held on to her position as a trustee even as her husband was resigning left and right from his board-level commitments. She seems less willing than her husband to admit she made a serious mistake - punishable by incarceration and fines - and to accept the consequences of her poor decisions and lack of empathy. I think a healthier person would have resigned immediately, citing personal reasons, knowing the consequences this scandal would have for Williams College's reputation.

It may also be that Williams College tolerated (or even excused) Joey Shaista Horn's contemptible behavior out of a misplaced sympathy for her cultural heritage.

Unfortunately for her Filipino au pairs, not all aspects of Indian culture are as pleasant as the classical dance routines Joey Shaista Horn brought to campus in the late 1980's. Sadly, Indian culture has made it tolerant of holding the largest number of enslaved people in the world. As I understand it, a little over 18 million people — about the population of Chile — are still victims of contemporary slavery in India.

Frankly, I do not think it makes sense to neglect the contribution of Indian culture to her behavior. The au pairs report that they felt like "slaves" while they were in her household. Her own husband indicates that she was the one responsible for administering the au pairs. She certainly did not pick up her calloused attitude toward her au pairs from anything she learned in either European or American culture.

My guess is that she lasted as long as she did because she is a powerful board member, that she held on to avoid embarrassment, that her globalist vision is perfectly aligned with her fellow trustees, and that they were willing to cut her some slack because demanding her resignation would remind us all that cultural diversity is not necessarily a good thing, especially when one's received culture is relatively tolerant of the enslavement of others.

In more painful irony, it turns out Joey Shaista Horn ’87, who was based in Singapore when she came on board, was the very first international trustee. See, http://williamsrecord.com/2010/05/05/inside-the-boardroom-trustees-elucidate-role-at-the-college/ She was, initially, a triple affirmative action victory – Indian, female and international. In retrospect, I think she will soon be regarded as one of the trustee’s biggest mistakes. Maybe there should be a special trustee position set aside for the morally bankrupt/recently incarcerated?

NOTE: As a professional fundraiser myself, I would start picking away at this tangled mess by asking who on the development staff knew about her arrest in December 2014? I suspect that the folks who were taking credit for her $10 million gift had little incentive to shine the light on her creepy backstory.

In a recent article in the student-run, Williams Record, two reporters found that the trustee chair, Adam Falk and the development staff all knew about the Horn's arrest prior to accepting their $10 million naming rights gift for Horn Hall. You can now also open a copy of Joey Horn's post resignation explanation letter. From the article, it is clear that Adam Falk has lost his moral compass because he does not seem to get why a track-record of lying, criminality and abuse disqualifies someone from having their name proudly displayed on a student residence hall.

Finally, I suspect we will see that she is involved with other trustees at Williams College in ways that have nothing to do with the school. She may, for example, have been using her trustee position to market investment products to other trustees. It is entirely possible that she has entangled herself in their other business or charitable work too.

I predict her downfall will ensnare other trustees - as well as faculty, administrators and development staff - as it becomes more and more clear which of them knew about her dark side and which of them failed to confront it.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Greedy for Globalism: Williams College Trustee Joey Shaista Horn '87 Sentenced to Prison for Au Pair Abuse Crime

The evil, globalist influences at Williams College in MA are now slightly more visible. It turns out that Ephblog is reporting that Joey Shaista Horn '87 -- one of trustees of this previously prestigious institution -- is now sentenced to five months in prison.

She and her husband Ragnor Horn '85 will be jailed five months as punishment for their mistreatment of two Filipino au pairs. For more complete details on this case, please check out the English language article in News In English: Norway. According to an article in Ephblog, Joey and Ragnor were exploiting both young women: 

The Oslo City Court has sentenced a wealthy Norwegian investor and his wife to five months in prison each, in a case that has highlighted abuse of Norway’s au pair program. It’s supposed to serve as a cultural exchange for young people from abroad but the couple, aided by two neighbours, was found guilty of fraudulently and illegally using two young women from the Philippines as au pairs at the same time, and putting them to work as their low-paid household help.

In a related development, two of the Horn's neighbors, who had helped the Horns illegally bring the two young women to Norway, were convicted under Norway's human trafficking laws. During the trial in January 2017, the two au pairs reported that they felt like “slaves” and “in prison” in the Horns’ home. In a bizarre twist, Ragnor threw Joey under the bus, and then drove it back and forth over her, when he told the court that economic gain was “never a factor” in regarding the au pairs and that Joey Shaista Horn '87 had been responsible for administering them. According to one of the au pairs, Joey was “a perfectionist” who humiliated her.

What is especially nauseating to me is that Joey Shaista Horn '87 was involved in the political science department when I taught at Williams College in the late 1980's. As a student, she majored in biology with a concentration in Middle Eastern studies. In a time when the school is bending over backwards to bring more foreign students to Williams College, she had impeccable credentials since she had been the president of the International Students Club and performed Indian classical dance.

I do not remember her at all. After she graduated from Williams College, she went on to take her MBA at Yale in 1991 and has worked in a variety of roles in investment banking according to Bloomberg. She sits on a number of corporate boards.

She is of Indian decent and has apparently taken to heart the cultural traits which are the most dysfunctional aspects of Indian culture, a culture which seems to turn a blind eye to both prostitution and human-trafficking. See, https://www.theglobalist.com/india-the-modern-slavery-capital-of-the-world/ As a biographical statement from the office of the president indicates, the folks at Williams College have been celebrating her globalist credentials for a while now:

Having grown up in Paris and New York and lived as an adult in Singapore and now Oslo, Norway, Joey is one of the college’s more globally minded trustees. She is of Indian heritage and came to Williams as an international student, and she met and eventually married another international Eph—her husband is Ragnar Horn ’85.

Joey Shaista Horn '87 has been highly involved with the school according to its own publicity. for example, she joined the Board of Trustees as an alumni trustee in 2009 and was appointed as a term trustee in 2014. She served as an associate class agent, co-head agent and co-chair of her 25th reunion. She was involved in the Teach It Forward campaign as co-chair of the Women’s Leadership Giving Committee. Amazingly, she served as volunteer for the Windows on Williams program which is designed to encourage students to make an early decision in favor of the school. The school gave her the Frederick C. Copeland Award in 2012, in part, because of her efforts to "lead the charge" to increase the number of foreign students at Williams. You cannot make this stuff up.

The embarrassment for Adam Falk, the school's president, must be intense right now. The school's newest residential building, Horn Hall, is named after them. Here is a fawning article in a 2008 Williams College report that included information about this couple's globalist credentials including their residence in Singapore:

Horn Hall, as you might expect, is named after them because they funded this new residential hall with a $10 million gift to the school.

Joey Shaista Horn '87 has been a Williams trustee since 2009 where, it seems, she has been able to promote her lack of empathy and vision for anti-American globalism to a generation of Williams College students. The details of the Williams College trustees objectionable behavior are also reported in Ephblog today: 

The au pairs’ testimony was almost entirely at odds with the Horns’, according to media reports. The Horns claimed they considered the women members of their family and had tried to help them. They admitted to having surveillance cameras in their home but claimed they were not focused on the women while they worked. Mrs Horn, who was represented in court by one of Norway’s most famous defense attorneys, John Christian Elden, also confirmed the required use of face masks, but claimed that “was common in Asia” and was only required in the kitchen by one of the women who “coughed so much.” 

Evidence prosecutors referred to in court, however, included a chatting exchange Mrs Horn had with a friend that revealed her referring to her household help in derogatory terms and accusing her of coughing on the food or while in the bathroom. Mrs Horn told her friend the au pair would have to use both a face mask and disposable gloves while in the home or with Horn’s children. 

The conversation used as evidence in court also recorded Mrs Horn telling her friend that she had threatened to send the au pair back to her “straw mats in Manila.” Mrs Horn defended herself by saying it had been a “private conversation” with an old friend and that she actually “loved straw mats” and had one in her own home that she used for yoga.

From my perspective, the more pertinent issue is whether or not the U.S. and Williams College are ready for the globalist values of Joey Shaista Horn '87. As a matter of integrity, Williams College should return their gift and allow someone else, someone with better and more humane values, have the honor of their name on that building. Simple as that. If Williams fails to take action, the students on campus should begin protesting this outrage.

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I am pleased to report that the day before an earlier version of this article was published -- and later promoted through my Twitter account -- Joey Shaista Horn '87 resigned from the Board of Trustees of Williams College. Now, all Adam Falk needs to do is return her $10 million gift and scrape her family's name off the new residential hall. Someone should also be asking why it took about two weeks for Joey Shaista Horn '87 resign?

As a capital campaign adviser myself, I suspect the school procrastinated in severing its relationship with her until Ephblog raised the visibility of her conviction and sentence. This case, by the way, has been on-going since 2014 so the administration at Williams College must have known about the seedy side of this errant trustee long before they opened the doors of the new Horn Hall to a new generation of erstwhile social justice warriors.

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As I observed in one of my own Ephblog posts, "The larger issue is that Joey Shaista Horn '87 is a proven liar, a criminal, and an abusive employer, all qualities that make her unsuited to serve as a Williams College trustee. I don’t think that the Williams College that hired me in the 1980’s would tolerate someone with her criminal record, much less name a building after her." Hopefully, the revelations regarding this disgusting human being will cause others to ask serious questions about Williams College and its dysfunctional values. No one should lie about or mistreat au pairs.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.

Valentines Day: Teaching Romance at Williams College

I still think that one of the best things I ever did at Williams College was a Winter Study called “Decisions, Decisions.” Even though it was politically incorrect, I included a session on how to choose a spouse.

At this time, I was already sensitive to the left-wing extremists on campus — as an ex-extremist myself — and I was pleasantly surprised by the degree to which students signed up for the course and the extent to which they were fascinated by the topic of finding a marriage partner.

I remember asking among my fellow faculty members who had the happiest marriage on campus and I invited that couple to come in and address my Winter Study class. I used the same techniques I taught in that class to find Trish, and we have been married 20 years now this February 22.

My tips? Make a list of all the qualities you are looking for based on what you’ve liked or disliked about previous love interests. Create a detailed description of the person you are looking for…I mean detailed. Next, take action. Ironically, some of this maybe up to the girl. My future wife, for example, called me first and invited me to an innocuous, mutually interesting event.

The best advice, as always, comes from Charles Murray: “Consider marrying young. Be wary of grand passions. Watch Groundhog Day repeatedly.” For an alternative point of view, the one I actually followed as a young man, check out the new musical, La La Land.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist.