QOTD #13

"Should a college punish swearing?" -Inside Higher Ed, via Twitter

In the higher education world today, a story broke that Hinds Community College in Mississippi is being charged by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for fining and issuing demerits to a student for cursing and "flagrant disrespect." I caught the story by following Inside Higher Ed on Twitter and had to immediately read it. You can find the entire article here. Wow.

The short version is, the college outlines in it's policies that "public profanity, cursing and vulgarity" are all punishable with a $25 fine for a first offense, and a $50 fine for a second offense, and that "flagrant disrespect" can be punished with demerits that can lead to suspension. The student in question apparently accomplished both of these offenses in front of a professor by saying outside of the classroom that his grade was "going to fuck up [his] entire G.P.A." Then when the professor threatened him with detention, the student "disrespected" her by pointing out the school did not have detention. So $25 for the f-bomb, and demerits for pointing out the obvious. Nice. Obviously FIRE is taking up the case because the claim is a public college is infringing on first amendment rights. (And anyone in higher ed reading this right now is immediately thinking "If they were private they could probably get away with it...")

The question to me becomes, how far do we go as educators to teach students civility? As educators, and as student affairs professionals, we are often charged to help make students better citizens. Often this includes how to express themselves to others in a "civil" manner. However, this college has clearly taken things too far. Fining students never really teaches them much. Just look at how many parking tickets they rack up, and they still park where they are not supposed to. Do you think this student will never curse again? I doubt it.

So then what are we supposed to do? Meaningful conversations? Teachable moments? Discourse on civility? I actually just found out today that a group of professionals at FSU crafted a new statement on being civil, almost like a creed (which is also quite popular on campuses these days...like our Seminole Creed or the Carolinian Creed but shorter), to remind our students what it means to respect all people. Our union director just shared it with me today. I will be interested to see where it goes on our campus.

I think we also find ourselves needing to look at the line between educating our students to be better people and just trying to change them all together. Should we not be trying to meet them where they are and then go from there? When has blatant punishment ever gotten us anywhere...especially with our newer generations. I am not saying that the student has a right to go around and yell "fuck" anytime he feels like it, but as most of our rights are, you have them until they infringe on others'. So he was outside of class commenting on his grades. Let it go.

(I have to insert here that I am literally having this same discussion with my long time friend, colleague, mentor Jenni as I am typing this becuase she is working on a presentation about "Millennials"...a term we both despise. Crazy timing. I miss my "genetics gone wild big sister." Ha.)

Maybe it is generational gaps...archaic institutions and policies...failure to know what else to do...actually, just failure. Whatever it is, I will be interested to see where this one goes, if anywhere. One of the most frustrating things about working in higher education is functioning in a world that promotes change while often holding on to outdated standards.

I could probably keep going, but I think I will stop here. I am interested to see what others think about this topic. Enjoy.

Sidenote: Especially for all of my USC HESA folks, Scott Lewis is quoted throughout this article. He still makes his points pretty well!