The Red and Black

Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: News

DISPONZIO

A student who wrote disparaging comments on an anonymous course evaluation now finds himself facing University sanctions.

Brian Beck, a landscape architecture major from Gordon, was found in violation of three University Code of Conduct regulations in a decision announced last week by University Judiciary. Beck was found in violation of the code due to:

• Disruption of the teaching evaluation process

• On grounds of multiplicity

• Harassment based on presumed knowledge of the associate professor's sexual orientation

Beck's violations stem from comments made on two course evaluations in Joseph Disponzio's History of the Built Environment course sequence.

On the first course evaluation, Beck was asked "What aspects of the course could use improvement or change?"

Beck wrote: "Joe Disponzio is a complete asshole. I hope he chokes on a dick, gets AIDS and dies. To hell with all gay teachers who are terrible with their jobs and try to fail students!"

During a phone interview with The Red & Black, Disponzio said, "As always, there were good comments and bad comments. I am a difficult professor. After receiving the comment [in January] I went to my dean about it. I was not amused by it."

College of Environment & Design Interim Dean Scott Weinberg said he told Disponzio, "He probably needs to go see people in Legal Affairs." According to an e-mail sent from Disponzio to Kimberly Ellis, associate dean for Student Affairs-Office of Judicial Programs, Weinberg "essentially said that since the evaluation was anonymous, there was little he could do. [Weinberg] does nothing to address the situation among the staff and faculty of the (College of Environment & Design)."

"I was initially trying to determine at what point a student's anonymity gets rescinded because of an evaluation," Disponzio said. "Evaluations are a big deal at Georgia. I went through my exams, and I actually thought it was somebody else early on. I really could not make a determination, though."

After consulting Legal Affairs, Disponzio said he did not pursue the matter because of academic responsibilities. The University did not take action.

"Ultimately, I let the whole thing drop," Disponzio said, but "at the end of the spring semester, I received a similar comment."

Beck answered the evaluation question "What were the most helpful/useful aspects of the course?" with "Joe Disponzio needs help with his issues dealing with homosexuality. Fags are not cool and neither are ney [sic] yorkers."

After comparing the two evaluations to exams from the class, Disponzio said he was able to identify the student he thought made the comments.

"I am a New Yorker and a gay man ... but I have no idea what the student's issues were," Disponzio said. "Systematically you go through this, then I realized that I found the culprit."

On June 11, Disponzio went to Weinberg's office and left copies of the two evaluations along with copies of the exams he believed to be those of the offending students. No action was taken at this point because Weinberg was out of town.

On. Aug. 21, Weinberg referred Disponzio to Cheryl Dozier, associate provost for institutional diversity. Disponzio and Dozier met the next day and the matter was referred to Ellis. Two days later, an official complaint was filed with the Office of Judicial Programs.

A letter was mailed to Beck's home address on Sept. 6 stating "it is alleged that Mr. Beck wrote threatening comments on course evaluations that were directed to a faculty member. Such comments indicated that he wanted the faculty member to die. Also the comments may have violated the University's anti-discrimination and harassment policy in that comments made may have been discriminatory regarding sexual orientation."

Beck was directed to contact the Office of Judicial Programs and a hearing was set for Oct. 15.

A handwriting document examiner was used to confirm the author of the evaluations. Roy Fenoff, a 2004 graduate of the University and forensic document examiner, was faxed the evaluations in question and Beck's class exams. He "concluded that the questioned writing was indeed authored by Brian Beck."

Fenoff came to this conclusion by examining "ink patterns, slant, size, fluidity of movement, entry strokes, final strokes, spacing of letters, the connections, letter form, punctuation, numbers, and abbreviation," according to judical programs' records.

Beck's punishment includes writing a 1,200-word essay on how his remarks affect the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community and interact with a greater intolerance of the campus LGBT community, a letter of apology to Disponzio including constructive criticisms of his teaching style, and meeting with Michael Shutt, assistant dean of students, to discuss completion of SafeSpace training or other programs deemed appropriate.

Beck received a reprimand/warning and was told he is expected to follow University Conduct Regulations in the future.

"I think that what they asked Brian to do is a nice measured response. I thought suspension or expulsion would serve no purpose at all," Disponzio said.

The same day the decision was handed down, Beck completed the apology letter and essay.

Efforts to reach Beck by phone and e-mail were unsuccessful.

Anonymous evaluations important

Course evaluations can be formative or summative, said Jere Morehead, vice provost for Academic Affairs.

"Formative evaluations are to help the professor become more proficient in the classroom and summative evaluations are used to determine merit review or promotion in tenure. What they are used for depends on the department or college."

The College of Environment & Design primarily uses evaluations for faculty self-improvement and in the tenure evaluation process, Weinberg said.

"Written comments are not used in the tenure evaluation process," he said. "Only the numerical scores are used. Only the teacher sees the written evaluation."

The Report of the Task Force on General Education and Learning recommended a move to an online course evaluation system.

"Due to the nature of most course evaluations it would be very difficult to determine who made the comment," Morehead said.

According to the Franklin College evaluation Web site, "the Web-based course evaluation application has been designed to encourage candor. Your identity will not be associated with any of your responses."

Christine Miller, assistant dean for Information Technology in Franklin College, confirmed that authentication information is not associated with individual responses. She also said "it would be possible to determine the identity of a student if it posed a dire risk, but it would be extremely difficult, and in some large lecture classes it might be impossible."

However, course evaluations are not always anonymous.

"When a report is made that indicates a violation of law or policy, the anonymity may be waived," said Stephen Shewmaker, director of the Office of Legal Affairs.

Disponzio wrote in a letter to Weinberg: "Though the evaluations are 'confidential'; such pointedly directed hate removes all rights to confidentially. Whether it is the student I suspect, or another, I will do whatever is necessary to find [him or her]."

LGBT community angered

Members of the LGBT community say they are not satisfied with how the University handled the case.

"Lambda is going to be up in arms. [We're] upset it took almost a year," said Moira Gillis, an anthropology major from Richmond and the director of public relations for Lambda Alliance, a group whose purpose is creating a safe and supportive environment for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students.

"I felt things would have been handled differently if it was a different group," said Tyler Kelly, a math and Romance languages double major from Alpharetta and director of information for Lambda Alliance. "The main issue is how slow everything was done."

Disponzio, who is on academic leave from the University and lecturing at Columbia University this semester, said he is troubled by the lack of response from the University administration.

"Just last week, Columbia had a very ugly racist incident. At one institution nothing is done. At another, the university president goes public," Disponzio said. "I'm not too concerned with myself, but we had a transgender student in the class. That's who I'm concerned with. They are the one that gets hit over the head with the baseball bat."

"The president of the University has to make it clear that this kind of behavior is unacceptable at the University of Georgia."

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