Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk From: ak200114@sol.yorku.ca Subject: Silva/UNH Harassment the NYTimes Message-ID: <1994Oct14.233540.1@sol.yorku.ca> Lines: 122 Sender: news@newshub.ccs.yorku.ca (USENET News System) Organization: York University Date: Sat, 15 Oct 1994 04:35:40 GMT Silva/UNH Harassment the NYTimes 10/12/94 Professor Strikes a Blow For Academic Freedom Special to The New York Times DURHAM, N.H., Oct. 11 -A re- cent Federal court order that re- instated a University of New Hamp- shire professor will help free other instructors speak openly in class- room ]ectures, without fear of being accused of verbal sexual harass- ment, Lawyers for colleges and uni- versities across the nation say. The Sept. 16 order by Judge Shane Devine of Federal District Court in Concord, which is not likely to be appealed, is a boon to academic free- dom, said the president of the Na- tional Association of College and University Attorneys, Lee Liggett. "We've got to be more sensitive to true sexual harassment issues on campus and to what is somebody's style of teaching," Mr. Liggett said. "Right now, the faculty on college campuses have a right to be worried about the question of academic free- dom." An expert in academic freedom, Elsa Kircher Cole, the general coun- sel for the University of Michigan, said the decision reinstating Prof. J. Donald Silva after an accusation of verbal sexual harassment in the classroom raised the standard for protected speech in an academic set- ting. Even outrageous speech uttered by a professor in a classroom could not now be interpreted as verbal sexual harassment, Ms. Cole said, if it was appropriately used while teaching. The previous guideline was only that merely offensive" speech was protected, she said. "The Federal court NOW says speech that is verbally outrageous is not sexual harassment," said Ms. Cole who has tried many cases in- volving academic freedom and writ- ten extensively on sexual harass- ment in academia. "I think that the decision helps clarify the debate." She said she thought that universi- lies should review their speech codes in light of Judge Devine's ruling. "We have so few opinions in this particular area of law" Ms. Cole said, "that it will be studied by all the institutions of higher education and I would say a review of every university's current sexual harass- ment policy would be prudent to determine if current policy stand- ards are, as the Federal Court in New Hampshire said, too subjective and not objective." Professor Silva, a tenured com- munications professor at the Thompson School of Applied Science since 1968, was suspended without pay in April 1993 after seven female students accused him of verbal sexu- al harassment for remarks in sev- eral classes. In a writing class, Professor Silva, 59, compared the focus in writing to the focus in sex. In another class, he had paraphrased Little Egypt's defi- nition of belly dancing- Belly danc- ing is like Jell-O on a plate with a vibrator under the plate." After the students made their complaint, the university ordered Professor Silva to undergo counsel- ing, but he refused, and took his case to Federal court, seeking reinstate- ment, back pay and damages. Judge Devine ordered his tempo- rary reinstatement and, in an un- usual move, issued an opinion sug- gesting that Professor Silva would win his case against the university if it went to trial. Since then, university trustees have asked their legal counsel to seek a negotiated settlement. Lawyers representing private col- leges and universities, including Harvard, Dartmouth and Swarth- more, and those for many public institutions of higher education have already started their examination of Judge Devine's decision. Private col- leges need not offer the same protec- tions for speech and academic free- . dom, but many do. l