The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, December 8, 2000 Page: 10 of 24
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10
THE RICE THRESHER NEWS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2000
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MINUTES, from Page 1
president's attention," he said. "He
chose to act on those minutes by
filing a complaint."
Camacho was unavailable for
comment.
Rees, herself a former Sid secre-
tary, said the Dunns' mother also
filed a complaint with Matusow after
Camacho did. "1 don't understand
why somebody from outside the Rice
community is allowed to file a com-
plaint in the first place," Rees said.
Mrs. Dunn could not be reached
for comment.
Rees said Camacho told her he
filed the complaint to protect Kini
and Murphy from possible legal ac-
tion. "He thought he was protecting
Patrick and Vinay ... from the out-
side world," she said.
The complaints allege three vio-
lations of the Code of Student Con-
duct: mental harm (violation la);vio-
lation of a university policy, the
sexual harassment policy (violation
lb); and discrimination on the basis
of sex (violation lh).
According to the sexual harass-
ment policy, "Sexual harassment is
a form of sex discrimination which
is prohibited by Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, by Title IX of the
Education Amendments of 1972, and
by the Texas Commission on Hu-
man Rights Act. Rice University's
Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Ac-
tion Policy also prohibits sex dis-
crimination."
The subcommittee
Matusow said he decided to as-
sume original jurisdiction over the
case, though he declined to explain
the reason for this decision.
Murphy said he was disappointed
the case was not going to University
Court. "It saddened me because I
realized that the only people that
can truly understand this matter are
the undergraduates," he said.
Matusow referred the case to a
subcommittee of the Judicial Affairs
Committee for investigation. The
subcommittee was chaired by Will
Rice College Master and Geology
and Geophysics Professor I )ale Saw-
yer, and its other members were
French Studies Professor Deborah
Nelson and chemical engineering
graduate student David Ting.
Rees said the subcommittee
membership was not fair to Kini and
Murphy. "I don't think they could
have picked a more biased subcom-
mittee," she said.
'Hie code requires one member
of any subcommittee to be a student.
Rees said the student should have
been an undergraduate. Student
Association President Lindsay Hots-
ford, a Wiess junior, is the only un-
dergraduate on the Judicial Affairs
Committee, but she was unable to
serve on the subcommittee due to
scheduling conflicts.
"With this case in specific, it was
incredibly essential to have an un-
dergraduate student who had lived
in a college for at least one year,"
Botsford said. "I indicated those con-
cerns to Dale Sawyer, who was the
chair of the [subcommittee!.... What
he emphasized was that it was more
important to have someone with Ju-
dicial Affairs experience than some-
one with experience of the college
system."
According to the code, if no stu-
dent is available to serve on a sub-
committee, "The chair may ask one
of the student court justices to serve
on the subcommittee."
Matusow said he could not com-
ment on the subcommittee's com-
position. Sawyer could not be
reached for comment.
The hearing
The subcommittee hearing on
Nov. 20 lasted about four hours.
Murphy and his father, Kini and his
mother, and the Dunns and their
parents attended the proceedings.
Murphy and Kini presented wit-
nesses including former Sid secre-
taries, character witnesses and other
students.
Rees was one of these witnesses.
She said that the Dunns' parents
made comments to her during her
testimony. "I'm shocked that the
parents were allowed to comment in
the case," Rees said. "This is sup-
posed to be Student Judicial Affairs,
involving students at Rice Univer-
sity. I don't understand where the
parents come into this."
Murphy said he and Kini would
not comment on the specifics of the
hearing.
The sanctions
Murphy and Kini were notified
by e-mail Wednesday to meet with
Matusow yesterday at 2:15 p.m. to
receive the results of the complaint
against them. Matusow informed
them that they were found in viola-
tion of all three charges would both
be on disciplinary suspension next
semester. They will receive credit
for this semester.
Kini will also face disciplinary
probation for the rest of his time at
Rice because of previous University
Court sanctions, Murphy said.
Murphy declined to comment on
the sanctions due to the appellate
process.
Kini and Murphy to appeal
Murphy and Kini plan to appeal
to Gillis. "Now I just appeal to Gillis
after discussing this matter with my
lawyers, my parents, other involved
parties," Murphy said.
'ITiey also have legal representa-
tion and have been in contact with
Die Foundation for Individual Rights
in Education about their case.
Murphy said they are "completely
unsure" about possible legal action,
pending the outcome of their ap-
peal.
' Whatever Rice does to
us will never have the
same effect on us as the
punishment we've put
ourselves through in the
past four weeks.'
— Patrick B. Murphy
Sid Richardson College
sophomore
According to the FIRE Web page
(http://www.thefire.org), "FIRE is a
nonprofit educational foundation
devoted to free speech, individual
liberty, religious freedom, the rights
of conscience, legal equality, due
process, and academic freedom on
our nation's campuses."
FIRE Executive Director Thor
Halvorssen said that what Kini and
Murphy did was not harassment.
"Being offended is not the same as
being harassed, and il trivializes true
harassment," he said. "Calling this
sexual harassment trivializes sexual
harassment. Sexual harassment is a
very serious issue, and it does hap-
pen. This is not sexual harassment
by any stretch of the imagination."
Halvorssen also said the
university's sanctions against Kini
and Murphy are incongruous with
penalties given in a similar case in
the past. "The last time that Gillis
prosecuted someone for this, they
only received community service,"
he said. "Furthermore you have a
possible situation of students ... get-
ting disparate treatment on the ba-
sis of gender."
I"he case Halvorssen referred to
was that of 1996-'97 ThresherVAMors
in Chief Marty Beard (Brown '98)
and Vivek Rao (Baker '97) in con-
nection with the 1997 edition of the
parody publication "The Rice
Trasher."The April 1,1997'Trasher"
contained a parody of an article from
the Thresher that year about Allison
Fine (Hanszen '97) being named one
of Glamour magazine's Top 10 col-
lege women, ITie "Trasher" article
substituted Hustler for Glamour and
included graphic sexual comments
about "Alice N. Whine." The article
described criteria for the "Hustler
Top Tit list" as "willingness to hook
up," "blow job proficiency,
followership, mindless giggling
land] breast size."
Rao and Beard were found guilty
of sexual harassment and harass-
ment. Rao, then a graduating senior,
was ordered to serve 100 hours of
community service.
Beard, then a junior, was origi-
nally sentenced to suspension for
one semester, 100 hours of commu-
nity service and disciplinary proba-
tion for the rest of her time at Rice.
However, Beard's suspension was
deferred by Camacho on the condi-
tion that she distribute a university-
approved letter of apology and that
she serve on an ad hoc committee
examining the relationship between
the Thresher and the university.
The effects on Kini and Murphy
Murphy said he and Kini have
been "very depressed" since they
were notified of the complaint against
them. "Whatever Rice does to us will
never have the same effect on us as
the punishment we've put ourselves
through in the past four weeks,"
Murphy said. "This is a huge strain
on my academics at this point. Be-
cause normally I would be holed up
in my room studying and working
on all my upcoming exams and pa-
pers, but instead I'm running around
getting advice from people, and when
I have free time all I can do is worry.
Vinay is going through the exact
same thing."
Murphy and Kini also worry about
how their suspension, if upheld, will
affect their futures. "I'm a member
of [Navy ROTCJ. If this punishment
is allowed to stand, I stand to lose
not only a scholarship but also any
hope of becoming an aviator,"
M urphy said. "Vinay has all but given
up his hopes of attending med school
if this is going to be on his tran-
script," Murphy said.
The history of the Sid minutes
Rees, who was a Sid secretary
two years ago, said Sid minutes have
a history of content other than re-
ports of announcements from the
Sid Council meeting. "About three
years ago, we started includingjokes
on both sides of the minutes, but the
back page ... of the minutes has
always been directed at individuals,
it has always contained sexually ex-
plicit language and, on many occa-
sions, it has been derogatory toward
students within the college," she told
the Thresher four weeks ago.
There were no guidelines given
to her about what she should or
should not put in the minutes. "When
I became secretary, no one in the
entire college ever said to me, 'Be
careful with what you write because
you could be held liable,' or, 'Watch
out what you write because some
people could be overly offended by
it,"' Rees said.
The college responds
Rees sent an e-mail to the Sid
listserv last night informing the col-
lege of Kini and Murphy's suspen-
sion and calling a meeting for 11
p.m. "to answer your questions and
discuss appeals to the university."
About 7(1 people attended the
meeting, including Jessica and
Danielle Dunn, Kini and Murphy.
Students at the meeting talked
about various ways to express their
disagreement with Kini and
Murphy's suspension. IJiey decided
on two courses of action: a group of
Sid freshmen are going to send a
letter to Gillis and other members of
the administration, and students will
write individual e-mails to Gillis and
encourage others to do the same.
Each freshmen who wants to "sign"
t he letter did so by filling out the first
page of an application to transfer to
another university.
Sid freshman Jessica Kaminsky,
one of the organizers of the protest,
said that 75 percent of Sid freshmen
will have filled out an application by
early today.
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Stoler, Brian. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 88, No. 15, Ed. 1 Friday, December 8, 2000, newspaper, December 8, 2000; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443216/m1/10/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.