The Stetson Reporter

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R J5__I T Y | e LIFE: Students share postcards from abroad [ page 1b ] /- ' 4f letters 10 the *** „. editor / issue 3 volume 113 Florida's Number One Private Cplloge Newspaper OPINIONS: Student desires Hat Rack to return to its old hours [ page 5a ] University plans project for Amelia ' I By Teresa Schwarz {■NEWS EDITOR i " The university announced a proposal to allocate two million dollars for Uhe beautification of Amelia Ave. in an :" effort to slow down traffic through the Reenter of campus. i Last year, the DeLand Police De- apartment (DPD) issued thirty-nine ?speeding tickets to motorists along :; Amelia Ave. The university feels the ^proposed changes will encourage motorists to slow down the motorists j; through campus. ;; , On average, 13,942 vehicles a day /travel on Amelia Ave. between East .Minnesota Ave. and East Pennsylvania ::Ave., according to a 1999 traffic study. :■ Research done by landscape archi- i tects and traffic engineers shows that I motorists tend to obey the speed limits J if curbing and landscaping are in place. : Currently Amelia has curbs north and I south of the campus. : - "I think the only, thing that will ! slow down, traffic is lots of blind turns ^ and paying kids who can't ride bikes to * ride bikes along the side of it [Amelia *iAve.]," said Dominic Mastroianni a '\ sophomore biochemistry major. \ The beautification project is pro- ejected to include five blocks along lAmelia Ave. between East Ohio Ave. :ahd East University Ave. Planned improvements may include curbing and ; guttering, landscaped medians, orna- v;mental streetlights and brick "pavers" fat each intersection in that area. "If it [the beautification project] is supposed to make people slow down to [ see AM E LI A, page 2a ] Corrections Dr. Donald Musser and Dr. Ranjini Thaver did not travel to Ireland last sum- . mer for a freedom symposium supported by . Stetson University Their participation was •: made possible by the John Templeton Foundation. The Department of Sports and Exer- >; cise Science's views are not represented by the Athletic Trainer John McFarland. The Reporter mistakenly associated McFarland ■with the sports and exercise program in its last issue. McFarland's upcoming columns on fitness and exercise represent his own opinion. ^Reporter Index News Opinions Editorial Life Health Classifieds Sports Comics Calendar Horoscopes Shout Crossword 2A 4A 4A IB 2B 3B 5B 6a 6a 6a 6a 6a Contact Us fifm ■ -' i if^i ti irnV *rr-ir itf !^^fr^ Ti-TttiTiiiTSgfcyt riaiiftniVirtiYriar-iffiCiM «Airtifii*i 421 N. Woodland Blvd. #8409 DeLand, FL 32720-3751 904.822.7224 FAX 904.822.7233 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] etcetera® stetson.edu [email protected] [email protected] advertise® stetson.edu policy NEWS makin i.. ■/ i K - ,-• / ''. Q: A male professor of marketing meets and forms a consensual relationship with a 16-year-old- female. When she eventually graduates high school, she enrolls at Stetson. Since the professor's relationship was established prior to her enrollment is it a violation of the policy? A: Yes. The new policy makes no exemption for relationships made prior to a student's enrollment. -X -:'.antf.,: -.#!■■■ 'mx\ 'juMBli*'';! Q: The editor-in- chief of The Reporter, who employs eighteen editorial board members, forms a consensual relationship with a low-ranking assistant news editor. Is the editor-in-chief, a student supervisor, violating the policy? A: No. The policy does not address student- to-student consensual relationships. The Reporter looks at the most recent developments in the consensual relations policy m'' \ By Jeff Hamrick editor-in-chief . Sex. Copulating. Fornicating. Screwing. Knocking boots. Bumping uglies. Humping. Doing the horizontal mambo. Banging. Sex.' The word raises eyebrows, but especially when you're talking about students and faculty members having sex. • " Consensual relationships—emotionally and physically intimate relationships—between students and faculty members have been raising more than just eyebrows though. The issue has raised concerns at every level of the university and last spring the Board of Trustees instructed the university administration to begin implementing a new consensual relations policy. The new policy—a significant change from the American Association of University Pro- f e s s or s' statement on consensual relations that the university faculty endorsed in 1995—prohibits consensual relationships between students, and faculty or staff members. The policy further prohibits consensual relations between any supervisor and subordinate employee, an administrator and a faculty member in a unit under that administrator's direction and an Q: A homosexual professor of mathematics has a domestic partner. The professor has "registered" his partner with the Office of Human Resources, and the domestic partner possesses a Stetson identification card. The domestic partner enrolls as a student at this university to earn a business degree. Are the professor and his domestic partner in violation of the policy? A: No. Well-established and registered domestic partnerships will be considered equivalent to marriages, according to The Reporter's sources. A domestic partner will be allowed to enroll as a student just as a wife or husband of a Stetson employee would be allowed to enroll. administrator and a staff member in a unit under that administrator's direction. On Sept. 8, the Board of Trustees will receive a report on the implementation of the new policy. The Board will also work on integrating the policy into new faculty-staff grievance procedures. History ofthe policy "This new policy comes into effect during this school term," said Dr. T. Wayne Bailey, university grievance ""officer. ' ~ The new policy stemmed from consultations with numerous groups at the university and a national law firm that specializes in consensual relations. "The thing that is so unique about this policy is that it prohibits sexual relationships between the faculty . and the students," said Bailey. "The decision of the trustees was to adopt a prohibitionist policy, and this is new to Stetson." Not all faculty members are happy with the new policy. "This is a clear example of the university trying to cover its ass and mangling a collective decision-making process to do so," said a professor at the College of Arts and Sciences who requested anonymity. "The trustees developed a policy that is really very different from the policy created by Jan [Kindred]." In 1997 Dr. Janis Kindred, a professor of music, chaired the Consensual Relations Policy Task Force (CRPTF). According to Kindred, the new policy is different from the policy developed by her task force. "I don't feel that our work was a total waste of time, but I must say that when I went to that first Board of Trustees meeting it was pretty clear to me that they just wanted something that said 'no,'" said Kindred. "I do wish that our committee could have had a chance to meet with the Board, so that we could have finished the policy ourselves," she' added. "Many people on the committee wanted to see this through." According to Dr. Diane Everett, past chair of the Faculty Senate, university administrators took over the policy development process after Kin- dred's meeting Q: The Business School's dean's wife has been hired to teach accounting as an adjunct professor. She regularly reports to and is evaluated by the dean. Is the dean violating the policy? A: Yes. Spouses, partners, or individuals with whom administrators or supervisors possess consensual relationships may not report to the administrator or supervisor in question. According to the policy, the administrator or supervisor must work with his or her supervisor "to alter the employment relationship and remove the conflict of interest and/or power differential." with the Board. "At that point, I believe that Jim Beasley [vice president for administration]', Wayne Bailey, Sally Dowling [director of administrative services and internal auditing] and Ben Wills [former director of administrative affairs] really took the primary lead," said Everett. Q: A professor of English has a spouse who wishes to earn an undergraduate degree in finance. That spouse enrolls at the university and becomes a student. Are the professor and spouse in violation of the policy? A: No. The policy does not explicitly address formal consensual relationships— relationships under the covenant of marriage or long-term domestic partnerships- said both Vice President for Administration Jim Beasley and University Grievance Officer Wayne Bailey. Everett said that the President's Staff never reached a consensus on the consensual relations issue. Everett said that the new consensual relations policy had "strong support" on the Board of Trustees. "Several members of that committee [the CRPTF] expressed concerns that they had spent so much time on the issue," said Everett. "And some of them felt that it was pretty much ignored." Enforcement period begins "I was not naive enough to expect that the final result of this process would be what every person - wanted," said Vice President for Administration Jim Beasley. "But there was a great deal of input at a variety of levels...there was as much discussion and input as I've ever seen at Stetson." Beasley said that litigation risk was not the only factor considered by the Board of Trustees. "The Board also considered what would be ethically acceptable and politically acceptable in our community," said Beasley. The policy requires any faculty or staff administrator who has engaged in a consensual relationship with a subordinate to work with the divisional vice president or dean to remove power differentials and ensure that the subordi- [see POLICY, page 3a] ;*fer^^<Mdt|^;^tpi)|i£^| ; dicated. tte%n|jfffist Senrf||, should befreAt^mdud^X^g fiothiromaTOe/Sekfiil:' anfc iSft ■ "if", 'i X ■* ' X is*' ; ■''""SSa&S1 '.'X *■ ",")■'" '■."^!4S>« just sexual ir^«3SsM^with£ s# '■«-..2"-'xv-'.: . ■"'■.■■*iV^~&;^X-*'i-i"'<'''-';'"'VJ''' '^'"'* ■' -^Sr : students,: ^H^MmimMM : -xs.i^vp-vmMmm-'^pt Q: A. professor of biology is reported for establishing a relationship with a student. The professor claims that the policy defines consensual relationships as "an emotionally (romantic) and physically (sexually) intimate relationship." The professor claims that he has been having "cheap and meaningless" sex with the student in question, and that the second criterion does not exist. The professor thus .. ■-' ' -;■=■ . claims that he is not in violation of * '.. ■ the policy. Is the professor in ■•' . . \. '.. violation of the policy? ■v X ':\*&*A£» jgollC^EJ^ERPT^ "A consensual relationship is one in which two people are engaged by mutual consent in an emotionally (romantic) and physically (sexual) intimate relationship. When such a relationship involves people who differ in power within the University community, it is of special concern because of the potential for conflict of interest and/or abuse of power..." "Stetson University prohibits consensual relationships between: (1) a faculty or staff member and any student enrolled at the university; (2) a supervisor and subordinate employee; (3) an administrator and a faculty member in a unit under that administrator's direction; (4) an administrator and a staff member in a'unit under that administrator's direction..." To view the entirety of the current consensual relations' policy, or the most recent draft proposed by the Consensual Relations Policy Task Force, go to http://reporter.stetspn.edu. http://i:epprter;stetson.edu - mmmmmm £M*K*M«*^'''i8^^