By Professor Doom
Last time around I
covered the school paper’s version of events surrounding the suicide of a
student after he got caught up in the school’s kangaroo court system. Bottom
line, however, the school paper is just administrative propaganda—they’re
entitled to their point of view, though I do wish they were more honest about
it. I mean, when The Ice Cream Council says their studies say the ideal human
weight is 400 lbs, they state their bias in their name…but the school paper
doesn’t give the reader any such fair warning.
So, now let’s
consider the rest of the story, from a source that probably doesn’t have
anything personal against the administration of UT Arlington.
Klocke, a
straight male, was accused by a gay male student of writing anti-gay slurs on
his computer during a class. Klocke vehemently denied the accusation, and
administrators who investigated the incident acknowledged there was no evidence to support the accuser’s
claims, yet Klocke was still punished.
--emphasis
added
I find it so
insulting that I can’t get cheaters removed from class even when I catch them
red-handed…but just an accusation of “anti-gay slurs” is enough to get a
student punted. Hmm, maybe I should start accusing cheaters of being anti-gay?
And, with no
evidence, just a he said/he said situation, punishment was meted out. What kind
of investigation was there?
The accuser
claims he was made so uncomfortable by the exchange that he waited until the
end of class and spoke to the professor, who allegedly told him to
contact student support services. There is no documentation to suggest the
professor was interviewed in the course of the investigation in order to
corroborate the accuser’s claims. The attorney for Klocke’s father, Kenneth
Chaiken, told Watchdog the professor never provided a witness statement,
In the old days,
our campuses weren’t flooded with administrators with splendiferous titles.
This sort of issue would go to the dean…he’d talk to the professor, he’d talk
to the students, and he’d tell the latter to leave each other alone and that
would be the end of it. Now we have platoons of 6-digit salaried admin to perform
investigations, and they don’t bother with such minimal investigation methods.
Instead of
seeking support services, the accuser reached out to Associate Vice President
of Student Affairs Heather Snow, with whom he had a friendly relationship. The
accuser was close enough to Snow to refer to her by her first name at times,
and Snow quickly became the accuser’s advocate, helping him to draft a
complaint against Klocke and conducting the disciplinary procedure without
following the school’s Title IX policies.
Hey, this is remarkably different than the school paper’s “coverage,” right? Now we have the
Associate Vice President of Student Affairs taking a personal hand in
destroying the enemy of a personal friend…that’s not quite as clean.
To emphasize,
despite her massive title, Heather has no business over this aspect of Student
Affairs:
The lawsuit
alleges that UTA’s Title IX coordinator was not informed of the allegation,
even though Snow suggested it constituted sexual harassment. This is a
violation of UTA’s policies regarding sexual misconduct, which state complaints “should be made to
the Title IX Coordinator or Deputy Coordinators.” Snow was neither.
There are
rules here, you see. You’re supposed to report this to the Title IX
Coordinator, who then is supposed to name an investigator, who’s supposed to,
you know, investigate. None of that happened, but if it did, after that comes a
hearing.
How’d the hearing go?
Klocke
received no hearing, even though he contradicted his accuser’s claims. Had Snow
properly reported the complaint to the Title IX coordinator, Klocke would have
received necessary protections from the school. By doing things on her own
terms, Snow was able to deny Klocke his rights as stated in UTA policy.
Well, of course
there was no hearing. That’s why there’s no indication of what judge made the
ruling (and it’s nuts that the school paper didn’t find this an odd omission…).
Every campus pours millions into Title IX compliance, hiring platoons of very well paid functionaries. It’s working out great,
isn’t it?
Snow took
control of the disciplinary procedure that involved a complaint she wrote
herself. She enlisted the help of UTA’s associate director of academic
integrity, Daniel Moore, and had him tell Klocke he was immediately prohibited
from attending the class where the incident was alleged to have occurred.
Klocke was completing the course as part of a short, pre-summer semester in
order to graduate that summer.
Wow, just an accusation,
of a crime so piffling that even if it were true would merit minimal punishment
at best, screwed this poor victim (Klocke) out of months of his life…his
graduation would be delayed 4 months. And there’s no recourse.
…someone
informed Klocke that this disciplinary record could keep him out of grad
school, which Klocke had planned to attend after graduation in the summer.
Poor kid…does
anyone believe our campus court system should be able to do this over such a
minimal accusation? Amazingly, Klocke had no way to defend himself from this
accusation:
When Klocke
was informed that an accusation had been lodged against him, he was not told
the name of his accuser. Klocke was also informed that he could not contact
anyone in the class, directly or indirectly, effectively denying him any
ability to find witnesses to corroborate his story.
Gee whiz,
how did the school paper miss this detail? Oh yeah that’s right, the paper is
just administrative propaganda, not a news source.
On the other
hand, the accuser was allowed to gather more evidence:
His accuser
was able to remain in the class and find witnesses. He found only one, who
didn’t corroborate his account but did say he overheard someone say “you should
leave.” This could have been said by either Klocke or his accuser in either of
their stories.
This case is
completely vaporous, there’s absolutely no justification for a judgement in any
form. The kid killed himself because
of this ruling.
--from
another site. As an added bonus this place has a picture of the court from my
old community college, in official regalia no less. Honest, this idiocy is
happening on many campuses across the country.
Despite the
obvious, blatant bias and kangaroo-ism here, administration is doubling down:
“The university followed its policies and procedures. This is now the subject of a lawsuit in federal court; therefore, we are unable to respond further at this time,” the statement said.
The university
followed its policies and procedures? Seriously, that’s their position. Yes,
seriously. Take it from someone with a lifetime in higher ed, admin never,
never admits error. I remember trying very hard to convince admin that 12
divided by 5 was 2.4, to no avail. Admin insisted it was 2.35, and there was,
quite literally, nothing I could do about it, even as our community college was
being laughed at for such idiocy in the face of simple correction.
I’ve covered this
type of weirdness before, and it comes from administration having absolute
power: these guys really do believe they can do whatever they want, and
whatever they do is, by definition, correct.
Of course, when
they get to a real court of law, reality sets in.
I’ll make a
prediction here for what will happen in the lawsuit held outside of the kangaroo
campus system:
1) The university will settle out of court (7
digits or more), no admission of wrongdoing.
2)Tuition
will go up, and another administrator (working title “Vice President Of
He-said/He-said Crimes With No Evidence And Diversity”) will be hired for
$150,000 a year.
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