Miami Hurricane, October 27, 1978

              Kenny Loggins In Concert on Patio Sunday
Along with PLAYER - Preview in ENTERTAINMENT - See Page 6
Shipley’s Jokes Banned Students Protest Action
A Hurricane feature last month critiquing politics and public affairs professor Dr. Virgil Shipley, has caused a controversy resulting in termination of the professor's joke telling in his classes.
The article, which only had praise for Shipley, cited one of his “risque” jokes in its contents. After the story was printed the trouble began.
The Women's Commission contacted School of Business Dean Edward Fox, asking that he have Shipley stop telling the type of jokes mentioned in the article. The Women’s Commission said that Shipley comments represent a “grotesque and dehumanizing presentment of the women's body.” This statement was also mentioned in a Sunday Miami Herald article concentrating on sexist comments made to women at UM. Dean Fox conntacted Shipley and, as a result, Shipley no longer tells jokes in class.
Shipley said that he used his jokes to bring himself closer to his students and set a mood for easier learning in his large lecture classes.
This is not the first time Shipley has been reprimanded for his jokes. In October of 1976, Suzzanne Matthews, a UM alumna of 1953, who had two daughter enrolled in the University at the time, one who was in Shipley's class, sent out 100 copies of a letter she had written concerning the "tastelessness" of Shipley's jokes. Matthews said that she withdrew her daughter from Shipley’s class, and that because, at the time, Shipley was chairman of the PPA department, her daughter changed her major to
avoid having to confront the man. The letter also included a threat to stop giving UM money because of the “shocking" philosophy she found to be present on a widespread level by Shipley and other UM professors. She not only disapproved of Ship-ley's jokes and teaching techniques, she also felt that Mrs. G’s column, a sex question and answer feature should not appear in the Hurricane.
In Shipley’s response to the gripes addressed to Dean Fox he said, "I find that the joke technique relaxes the class and prepares them for the serious lecture to follow. This is the first complaint (1976) that I have had from any student... I believe my joke telling has enabled me to establish a rapport with my students that is very gratifying. I do know that many students come to me with personal and academic problems that they maintain they could not take to any other faculty member.
“Each professor must be free to develop the style of teaching that works for him."
Shipley also stated in the letter that he had won the University’s outstanding teacher award and had been consistently rated in the student evaluations as an “excellent to superior" teacher. “Something I am doing must be right,” he concluded.
In the 1978 letter from the Women’s Commission, it was put rather bluntly that Shipley should no longer tell his “sexist" jokes. However, it appears that his students do not object to the jokes, or if they do find them offensive they do not make it known.
A recent class petition, written by Jon Spear and Marita Pachero, was circulated
protesting the Women’s Commission’s action. Many of the 171 class members signed the petition.
Shipley allowed Spear to read the petition to the class and Spear stressed that he told students they were under no pressure to sign it, only to "sign it if they'd like to."
When the signed petition was brougt to Dean Fox by it’s authors, Spear said that Fox questioned whether the student had been pressured into signing it. "But that’s not the way it was," Spear stressed.
According to Spear, Fox said that he had been getting a lot of pressure to shy away from the "Suntan U” image, which he compared to p>oor teaching techniques.
The point that Spear and Pachero were trying to get across was that Shipley uses jokes as a teaching technique. “He’s a good teacher and this is just one part of his teaching technique. The subject (PPA) by itself is pretty dry,” Spear said.k“It is a question of letting the man teach his class like he wants to.”
Pachero, a former Italian ambassador from Costa Rica, did not think it was the job of the Women’s Commission members, who do not take Shipley’s classes, to judge it. She felt that his remarks were not vulgar.
However, according to Spear, Dean Fox did feel that the jokes were vulgar.
“The man (Fox) didn’t have any inkling that students liked the jokes. I knew we were fighting a loosing battle the minute I came in (to Fox’s office). I expected that,’’
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Recreation for Life Week featured Blimpie's Second Annual Blimpie Eating Contest Wednesday on the Patio. Over two dozen contestants munched down pounds of roast beef, turkey, salami, ham.
Miami Hurricana/HARRY M. RIMM
cheese, and lots of the other great things Blimpies is famous for. When it was all over, Jeff Roth came out as the stuffed victor. Even though he won the contest, nobody left hungry.
MUNCH OUT
USBG Week Seeks to Help U
J
Jay Santos Alicia Cervera. Ray Bodiford
. . VSB(, members fork together in organizing uefk't event*
By ALICIA CERVERA
USBG Pr,„d»nt
Next week. Undergraduate Student Body Government (USBG) will be making a full-fledged effort to reach out and find out what the students are thinking, while providing some informative programs and fun times.
The week begins this Sunday with Student Entertainment Committee (SEC) featuring Kenny Loggins in concert. On Monday, the weekly senate meeting will be held in the lower lounge of the Student Union, allowing students to see their senate at work and giving them a chance to ask any questions they may have about student government.
On Tuesday, USBG is happy to host (What else?) a Halloween party at the Rat in cooperation with RHCCC and the Rathskeller. There will be a live band, and door prizes will be given away. USBG is looking forward to seeing everyone there, in costumes of course.
A debate on casino gambling along Miami Beach will be held Wednesday at noon on the Student Union patio. That night at 8pm, also on the patio, there will be a debate on Proposition 269 (Equality Ordinance proposed by gay rights advocates). Bob Kunst will speak for the ordinance, and Shirley Spellerberg will speak against it.
The first Council of Presidents meeting will be held at 4pm in S237 of the Student Union. This is an opportunity for all organizations to become familiar with student government, while exposing us to student problems and major goals.
For all the beer drinkers on campus, Thursday is your night at the Rat with Budweiser/Student Government 25-Cent Promo Night.
Finally, on Friday, USBG is proud to have Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Eckerd speaking on campus in Beamont Hall at/noon.
Rent Soars In
Family Homes
By JEFFREY M. WEISS
Hurricane New* Writer
Complaints about safety and rentals in Family Student Housing were highlighted this week by a pair of petitions turned in to Director of Residence Halls George Shoffner.
The petitions, signed by 17 residents of buildings 26,27,and 28, were originated by second semester junior Jamie Taylor, 26, a resident of the apartment 26 complex. They complained that the $396 increase in rent announced last June was “too drastic and too fast,” and that the lack of a fence between the family housing and the newly widened Ponce de Leon Blvd. was a danger to children living in the apartments.
The rent increase was presented to residents of the 375 family apartments In a letter dated June 8, 1978, 22 days before most leases terminated. The notice informed residents that single bedroom housing was going to cost $165 per month on campus (an $18 increase) and $145 per month in the University Park apartments across U.S. 1 (an increase of $15). Two bedroom apartments are now $190 on campus (a $33 jump), and $160 across the street (a $20 rise).
Solutions to both problems are under consideration, according to Shoffner and Assistant Director Raymond Leightman.
According to Taylor, the lateness of the notice posed a problem for students on financial aid. Deadline for applying for financial aid was April 1. The financial aid office incorporated the known rental cost for on campus housing into determination of aid packages, and this process was well underway by July 1.
Shoffner explained that the lateness of the announcement was the result of the lengthy process involved in setting up rate structures, as well as a late start getting the machinery going. According to Leightman, the process began in
Mlam Hurricane Al FERGUSON
Children Unprotected by Ponce
April. The suggestions had to be formulated and sent through administrative committees before being finally approved by the Board of Trustees on May 31, 1978.
Shoffner stated that future rent increases will take place “on a mid-year time frame. We will try to dovetail all of it at the same time so that a student will have about six months to plan what their costs will be.”
Another complaint concerned the amount of the increase, 21 per cent, for on-campus apartments. The petition said that the residents “find a great deal of difficulty adjusting to this tremendous increase. We do not feel that the reasons given for the rent increase were justifiable for such a large increase.”
According to Shoffner the Increase reflects the fact that family
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On the Inside
Quarterback Joe Montana of the ' "Fighting Irish" meets the Hurricanes Saturday at Notre Dame. Sports Editor Joe Glick will be there .Page 10
TKE Sows Seeds for New Members...........Page 3
Suzanne Says 'Don't Compromise '.........Page 5
Two Miami Premieres at Beaumont..........Page 8
Features Visits RSMAS....................Page 9
UM Booters Win Again...................Page 10