Professor-student "touchy feely" is now a no-no at UNC.
Hot for Teacher?
S EX BETWEEN TEACHERS AND STUDENTS IS NOTHING new, but to North Carolina legislators, it got really old really quick.
When reports surfaced of alleged affairs between a U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, associate professor and at least two of his students, there wasn't much school administrators could do. With no policy against such activity, they were stuck in a gray area.
Now, to prevent this from happening again, UNC has adopted a new amorous relations policy bylaws forbidding teachers from engaging in relationships with students they evaluate. Relationships are not forbidden between professors and students in disciplines other than their own, but they are discouraged.
Meanwhile, the teacher responsible for the adoption of the new policy resigned in July under pressure related to the alleged affairs and to alleged financial misdoings, too.
Information about James D. Williams' sexual exploits with undergraduate students drew the
attention of university administrators during a messy divorce between Williams and his third wife.
Court records reveal that Williams had at least two extramarital affairs with UNC students. He also admitted to having sex in his office with a student he employed.
After an investigation, outgoing UNC chancellor Paul Hardin reprimanded Williams for employing the student, but with no amorous relations policy in place, he took no further action.
Rumblings in the North Carolina legislature soon turned the tide against Williams.
Considering the reprimand a slap on the wrist, legislators say the case made them question whether funding for UNC was a worthy expenditure. "Parents put their trust in the university when they send their 18-year-old daughters to college," says Rep. Leo Daughtry.
That was the beginning of the end for Williams.
Michael Hooker, UNC's new chancellor, initiated dismissal proceedings against Williams just hours before his first meeting with state legislators. Hooker said his decision was based on new evidence of unrelated financial misdoings by Williams.
Williams, under extreme pressure, saw the writing on the wall and resigned before the review committee could meet to decide his case.
Robyn Tomlin Hackley, U. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Student Videos Sell a Radio Star
WHO'S JAMES McMURTRY? THE PRODUCER and student directors for the rock-folk singer's video album Where'd You Hide the Body? didn't know either, until they were asked to work on the project.
"[McMurtry's manager Mark Spector] thought this would be a great way to give students professional experience and James an entire video album," says producer Linda Feferman, who also directed two of the videos. Feferman, a friend of Spector's, was nominated for an Emmy for a PBS film she produced, wrote and directed, but she had never worked on a music video — or with students.
"I was blown away," she says. "What they came up with was as strong or stronger than any MTV stuff."
The student influence also gave McMurtry's music an edge that just might translate to crossover appeal.
Pip Johnson, a California
Institute of the Arts grad student, used children and animation to create her video's nostalgic feel.
but she also popped in disembodied, heavily lipsticked, singing lips.
Even folk singers like James MoMurtry want their MTV.
"I wanted to combine many unusual and special visual bits and pieces that the lyrics inspired," Johnson says.
Johnson was one of 11 Cal Arts and U. of Southern California students chosen to make the videos. Students were recommended to Feferman by the schools' faculty and asked to pick up a tape of McMurtry's album. Those interested then submitted storyboards, a production schedule and a budget.
"One of my teachers, who knew that most of the stuff I did had music in it, turned in my name," explains Johannes Gamble, a junior at Cal Arts. Gamble had never used a movie camera before — his first few rolls of film came out black. He didn't know how to use the editor, either.
"I went into Columbia Records, and Linda said, 'Here's the instruction book. This button does this — bye!' Then I stayed up really, really late... I didn't really know that this was going to be so professional and so real."
The music and video albums were released in July, and a TV special is planned.
Bonnie Datt, Associate Editor
Art Schmart: Endangered Endowments
480 TYPOR
CONGRESS IS TRIMMING AGAIN. LAST JULY, THE House of Representatives appropriations committee recommended cutting the annual budget of the National Endowment for the Arts by 40 percent and the National Endowment for the Humanities by 43 percent. A Senate bill, introduced in August, would only cut the arts endowment by a third but would leave the humanities with the 43 percent House cut.
Although the proposed cuts remain in a quagmire of political debate, one thing appears certain: Both the NEA and NEH face serious cutbacks and a possible phaseout over the next few years.
This could spell disaster for universities that depend on the endowments to support research, preservation projects and cultural activities.
In 1994,197 of the 3,800 NEA grants, totaling approximately $4 million, went to colleges and universities. The NEH doled out $67 million, or 42 percent of the $158 million program fund, to higher education.
College officials are eager to voice their concerns about the impacts that such cutbacks might have on colleges and universities.
"I see it as an abolition of a national cultural policy," says Andrea Rich, executive vice chancellor at UCLA. "Great nations that have sustained value over time have invested in their cultural core in order to sustain and enhance their cultural values. Without that, you have no anchored, cultural role in the world."
Cindy Peltier, director of the Center Gallery at Bucknell U. in Pennsylvania, says, "We'll be in line with Third World countries in terms of the arts, and I don't think that's where we want to be."
Other schools worry about the impact the cutbacks will have on the future of the arts and humanities.
"This is just part of a larger trend of shifting government money away from cultural preservation and heritage," says Paul Conway, director of preservation at Yale U.'s library, which receives $300,000 to $500,000 in grants each year.
["At Yale], there is a serious threat of losing material that is on its last leg," Conway says. "We have scholastic resources that just aren't going to make it to the 21st century."
Colleen Rush, Assistant Editor/Illustration by Aaron Taylor, Brigham Young U.
10 U. Magazine • October 1995