🚀 go-pugleaf

sullivan@cs.rose-hulman.edu (Fred Sullivan) writes:

>About a year ago, immediately after we installed a lab of color
>workstations, a number of students began displaying pictures of women in
>various stages of dress or undress.  The computer science faculty discussed
>the situation (this is a departmental laboratory) and decided to follow, at
>least for the time being, the following policy:

>We do not dictate what students may or may not display on their computer
>screens.  We do, however, feel free to exercise our own rights to free
>speech and tell students precisely what we think of their actions.
          
>........................................ Therefore I see no problem at
>all with calling a student in and telling him the following (I say him,
>because my institution does not currently admit women at the undergraduate
>level -- this will change in 2 years, and so far I have not felt the need
>to have a conversation of this type with a female graduate student or
>faculty member):

>1.  Our department has no policy against display of the kind of material in
>question.

Or, "Nobody wants to take responsibility for making decisions around here."

>2.  I am not going to tell him that he has to remove the pictures.

And, "I can't make decisions either."

>3.  My personal opinion is that he is acting like a adolescent jerk.
                                                     ---------------
You'd rather get personal and start calling him names.
And show him who's boss.

>4.  He should spend some time thinking about the effect the material being
>displayed might have on:
>	parents of prospective students who are visiting the campus,
>	female staff and faculty members who might feel that they are being
>sexually harassed.

But calling someone an adolescent jerk is not an overt form of harassment?
This is a good way to sever communication and foster resentment.
BTW, are you teacher or administrator?

>5.  He should reflect on the fact that soon he will graduate and find
>himself working with, and quite possible for women, and that perhaps he
>should review his attitudes towards women, if for no other reason, than out
>of self interest.

Finally you're getting somewhere!
Now repeat, discarding steps 1 through 4.

>A little over a year ago, I had this conversation with 4 students, and I
>have not seen nudes displayed in our lab since that time.

Are you and they still on speaking terms?  

>Now you can say that although I explicitly told the students they were under
>no compulsion, there was nevertheless coercion on my part.  That is no doubt
>true.  However, my (admittedly limited) experience indicates that students
>react much better to being told to grow up and begin to adopt a professional
>attitude than they do to being told to remove pictures of nudes.

Professionalism works both ways.

>--
>Fred Sullivan                           6060 Wabash Avenue
>Computer Science Department             Terre Haute, IN  47803
>Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology     sullivan@cs.rose-hulman.edu

Curt Roelle
roelle@sigi.jhuapl.edu