The Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 4, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 22, 1988 Page: 1 of 12
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THE MEGAPHONE
.1 '
FfECEIlVED
SIP 241988
K, HMK MM. It. UMMT ounce
-SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY-
September 22, 1988 VOLUME 83
ISSUE 4
President Roy B. Shilling
reports on the investigations
and findings
of the Sexism/Racism Allegations
Boycotters claim
Anti-Administration .
not necessarily the case
By Stephanie Gimenez
In April of the 1988 spring
semester, allegations of sexism
and racism were brought up among
many members of the community
including students, resident life
staff, faculty, and administrators.
An open forum occurred involving
students and faculty and staff
members, which exposed several
instances of sexual harassment,
degrading oehavior, sexual threats
and advances, racial degradations,
and sexual assault
In order to address these
occurrences a legal investigation
was instigated by the
administration. Also, the Faculty
Task Force was formed to "feel
out" the SU student life
environment and climate, and to
draw some conclusions on what
could be done.
On Sunday, September 18,
President Roy B. Shilling
presented a report to the student
body. The President's Speech
reported on the legal conclusions
drawn, the Task Force
conclusions, and what has, would,
and should be done in lieu of these
issues. Thirty students attended
the assemblage due to an organized
boycott. The students who did
attend, participated in a series of
questions and answers ait the end of
the speech.
The president opened his
speech by describing the purposes
and goals of the campus
community. He pointed out that
the members of this all
share a common mission of
education and faith. This mission
commits us to strive for: academic
excellence, the pursuit of truth,
high standards of personal and
corporate conduct, assuming
leadership qualities, insuring the
worth and dignities of person,
abiding by models of human
interaction, upholding human
rights, and a common
commitment to core values of
right and wrong.
President Shilling told students
that he was as shocked and
appalled by the allegations as all
community members. In the
pursuit of maintaining a criteria of
excellence on campus, President
Shilling felt compelled to act
flrrrwriingly with legal counsel, and
the Task Force.
The legal investigators found
that with the amount of evidence
gathered, no legal actions could be
taken. However, Shilling claims
that "to insure the worth and
dignity of each person" on
campus, many steps have and will
be taken to address the issue.
First of all, the. Faculty Task
Force was formed to further
investigate the cases, attitudes, and
environment on campus. To
gather information, they issued out
surveys to students and spoke to
several of the victims and involved
parties.
The Task Force includes: Dr.
Jan Dawson, Dr. Walt Herbert, Dr.
Gweyn Neville, Dr. Bob Soulen,
Kenny Sheppard, Gary Richter,
Jeanie Watson and Marilyn
Molitorisz as the head chair.
From their findings, they have
drawn many conclusions.^
President Shilling proceeded to
respond to these findings.
First of all, President Shilling
thanked the women who had the
courage to bring these problems
up. It was also brought to his
attention that for many students
to come forth with allegations
meant "social suicide". Shilling
would like to see this sort of
attitude changed.
To promote a campaign of
awareness on the student level,
Shilling spoke to student leaders,
including greek organizational
leaders and their alumna advisors.
Dean of Students Roger Ballou is
also promoting student awareness
Orientation, he talked to the new
class about date rape and asked
them for their input.
To raise the level of
consciousness at the University
faculty level, members were asked
to do some background reading.
At the fall faculty conference,
members discussed concerns raised
by the Task Force. Copies of
"The Classroom Climate: A
Chilly one for women were given
to each faculty member and the
various concerns were discussed.
Cont.on p. 12
by Judith Manriquez
On Sunday, September 18,
about 150 people signed a petition
to boycott a scheduled address by
the President. Copies were made
of the signed petition; the original
was delivered to President Shilling
and an attempt was made to
schedule a meeting. <5ne copy was
delivered to Dean Roger Ballou
and since then, an attempt has
been made to schedule a meeting
with him as well. President
Shilling responded immediately by
scheduling a meeting for next
Friday at 12:30 in the Upstairs
Commons to meet and talk with
petition and anyone else interested
in attending.
Since then the boycott has
brought about intense controversy
and confusion. The confusion is
due to a misunderstanding of the
purpose and intent of the boycott.
The petition expressed the
resentment of students toward the
fact that they were not sought in
conjunction with the President's
address on the Task Force.
Additionally, students who were
actively involved in these matters
wished to be consulted to identify
student needs on such matters.
The last two sentences in the
petition most clearly explain the
purpose: " non-attendance is our
way of expressing our displeasure
with our exclusion from the
planning, promotion, and
execution of this event. We hope
that this action will promote some
sort of sincere response on the
administrators' part, enabling us to
come together on new terms in
order to correct this problem."
Boycotters felt this was in no
way an expression of anti-
administrative sentiment. On the
contrary, it was a plea to the
administration to hear the student
voice. Rather, the boycott merely
demonstrated this group of
students' desire to communicate
and contribute.
Although boycotts and
petitions are not always the best
forms of communication; they are
drastic measures. But it was felt
that a measure of last resort was
needed. It is to my understanding
that at least two people had
approached the Dean of Students
on separate occasions and informed
him of their organization's desire
to work together.
In closing, one question comes
to mind: What shoud students do
when they have tried to work
through the established channels
and are still not included? The
answer in this case was the
boycott.
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The Megaphone (Georgetown, Tex.), Vol. 83, No. 4, Ed. 1 Thursday, September 22, 1988, newspaper, September 22, 1988; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth634351/m1/1/: accessed July 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Southwestern University.