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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2000)
Q ac I<AM AS P r ÌNT^ C9" Wednesday, March 1, 2000 Clackamas Community College Oregon City, Oregon Volume XXXIII, Issue 16 PHOTOS BY KARL KATZKE College President John Keyser emphasizes his support of student rights by suggesting that the complaint process be examined at a college-wide level. Social Science Instructor Jackie Flowers answers a question about the modifications being proposed to the student complaint process. Counselors David Blessman (left) and Ellen Wolfson listen as Faculty President Hugo Grimaldi (right) makes a point about academic freedom. The President's Council session became heated at times as administrators and faculty made impassioned points about student and faculty rights. Complaint process ignites campus debate A faculty group proposes a change in the student Incident. Resolution Form KARLKATZKE Business Manger A group of College faculty has proposed a controversial change to the “Incident Resolution Form,” which governs how complaints against faculty and staff of the col lege are handled. According to Jackie Flowers, social sciences instructor, and Terry Mackey, two of the faculty members who are leading the group that has drafted a revised process, the revision was prompted by the complaint filed by Joshua Alexander against Dr. Don Epstein. “My concern is that we don’t have another incident like we had with Don Epstein, where the stu dent complaint could have esca lated to a level that wasn’t appro priate for that particular complaint, since that complaint didn’t deal with free expression in the classroom,” said Flowers. Another involved faculty mem ber contended that the college could have future problems if this process is not modified. “We’re at an age,” noted Mackey, “where formal litigation is the process, and I think some de partments are going to need to pro tect themselves.” Proposed revisions The proposed revision to the form, which could be retitled as the “Student Rights Violation and Resolution Form,” adds a paragraph that reads: “Problems outside the purview of'student rights' should be discussed with your instructor. Examples of such problems include, but are not limited to: use of offen sive language; ideological and/or religious conflicts; controversial topics.” Keyser, college president. Flowers disagreed. “It seems that when we talk about student rights and academic freedom, that oftentimes, we as sume that there’s going to be a Dissent exists in faculty clash between the two... but I don’t Several faculty members who think that’s true,” said Flowers. were not involved with writing the Flowers advocates separating draft were present at a meeting the present “Incident Resolution Monday evening, and many of Form” into two processes: First, the them disagreed with the point of revised “Student Rights Violation view of the revision. and Resolution” form, which out lines the student “The decision rights listed on making process pages 78-79 of the in the college for Student Hand broad issues along when book; and sec such as student this come ond, an as-yet- complaints that undeveloped involve all of us is hadn ’t process for a ... is a college is complaint against sue that is the course mate brought up at involvement. rial or content of President’s Norm Berney a class. She Council,” said ASG Advisor claims to simply Jan Godfrey, as be interested in sociate dean. clarifying the form Godfrey made the point that only faculty members and its intent, rather than actually and members of The Print staff changing the rights of students. “We were just going to clarify were attending a meeting that had implications for the entire campus. what, was already there... we weren’t intending to expand or con tract anything,” said Flowers. Council meeting heated At Tuesday morning’s heated Few people involved President’s Council meeting, the revi College staff and faculty who dis sion was discussed with the college ad ministration, and the reaction from other agree with the proposal cite the fact members of the college community was that a very small number of faculty overwhelmingly against restricting stu members were involved in devel oping the revision. dent rights. “I almost get the impression that “What I’ve seen so far is that it’s we need to take student rights away not inclusive, people have moved to protect faculty rights,” said John too quickly, and have forgotten to My concern all I saw issue up that there been any student use the expertise that we’ve got on campus from the last time we did this nine years ago,” said Ellen Wolfson of the counseling depart ment. “I don’t support the draft that’s being passed around at all.” Norm Berney, associated student government advisor, shared these opinions. “My concern, and my concern all along when I saw this issue come up, is that there hadn’t been any student involvement,” said Berney. College to take a closer look At the President’s Council meet ing, a decision was made for Dian Connett, dean of instructional ser vices, to form a committee or task "force that would include represen tatives from all of the necessary de partments on campus. “I’m going to meet with all of the association presidents," said Connett. "What’s really important, is to see if we can lay out what is the current process and not only how does it operate, but what do we think its intent is. I don’t think that was clear today... it seemed like we were jumping to solutions or suggestions or implications of things. Let’s look at what we were trying to accomplish, and let’s all look at how it should work.” Keyser supports the decision to take a closer look at this issue. “I think it’s agood place to initiate the discussion... In terms of the final recommendation, I think that we need multiple points ofview... I think we’re going to have some good discus sion,” said Keyser. Student Rights • The Incident Resolution Form is used when a student has a complaint or problem with a member of the college staff. The member of the college staff can be either a faculty member (a teacher), or a member of the support staff. • Currently, the form reads: “Use this form if you have a problem with a member of the college staff that you would like help solving, specifically if you feel that your rights, as outlined in the Student Handbook, have been violated. The college will try to resolve the problem informally, but you may initiate a formal complaint if you are not satisfied with the outcome.” Your student rights are listed in the student handbook. What's the controversy • The following changes have been proposed to the Incident Resolution Form: “Problems outside the purview of 'student rights1 should be discussed with your instructor. Examples of such problems include, but are not limited to: use of offensive language; ideological and/or religious conflicts; controversial topics.”
