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IUSB Vindicates Student in āVagina Monologuesā Case; Concerns Remain
Today FIREannounced that Indiana UniversityāSouth Bend (IUSB) has made a significant step in reversing its series of unjust actions against student journalist Robert Francis. Francis was covering a production of āThe Vagina Monologuesā for the campus newspaper back in February when he interviewed students and professors appearing in the play about their roles. Being an interview about āThe Vagina Monologues,ā the interview topics were on the racier side of the spectrum, but Francis maintains that he broached only topics raised by the actresses and the play themselves.
During Francisās interview, one actress openly discussed her role in the playāthat of a woman who shaves all her pubic hair for the first time. Francis engaged her on this issue and got into a discussionāwhich he thought was apropos to the topic at handāabout the sensation and implications of shaven pubic areas. As Francis describes it, ātaken out of context, this seems lewd, but we were talking about āThe Vagina Monologuesā and standing two feet from a table where members of the club were selling vagina-shaped chocolate lollipops.ā
The interviewee filed a complaint against Francis, and Director of Judicial Affairs Charlotte Pfeifer held an informal meeting with Francis before determining that he was guilty of āconduct that is lewd, indecent, or obsceneā and, strangely, āstalking or hazing.ā Her suggested punishments read like a how-to manual for campus thought reform: a āprocessing session,ā or mandatory psychological counseling with an IUSB counselor; a āone-way listening sessionā where Francis would not be allowed to speak but would have to listen to his accusers tell him how they felt degraded by his interviews; and the requirement that he view and write a response paper on a film about sensitivity. Her assessment was upheld at the next level of the disciplinary process. Then a Hearing Commission upheld the ālewd conductā charge but dismissed the āstalking or hazingā charge. In a line that most succinctly captures the irony, double standard, and arbitrariness of IUSBās actions against Francis, the Hearing Commission report states that, āduring [Francisā] interviewā¦ [he] crossed the line from the educational discussion of the cultural issues of a woman shaving (or not) her vagina to sexually explicit and crass comments that were demeaning to women.ā [Emphasis added]
But just where is that line? Some would say that the play itself crosses many of those lines between acceptable language and crass expression. One could even make the case that a main point of āThe Vagina Monologuesā is to blur such distinctions.
Francis appealed to FIREfor help, and we wrote a letter to IUSB Chancellor Una Mae Reck in August voicing our concerns. Most importantly, since IUSB is a public school, Francisā statements were constitutionally protected. Our letter discusses decades of Supreme Court decisions that address āthe right to engage in shocking and potentially offensive speech, protecting both the language expressed in plays like āThe Vagina Monologuesā and Francisā comments to members of the V-Club.ā FIREalso criticized IUSBās attempt at thought reform and asked that the decision be reversed and any record of it removed from Francisā record.
On Tuesday, IUSB capitulated by reversing the charges against Francis. A letter from the universityās Associate General Counsel, however, explains that IUSB will not remove evidence of the complaint from Francisā file, but instead will insert a note that the complaint was ultimately overturned. Since any evidence of a frivolous and ultimately overturned decision can still tarnish Francisās record, FIREwill press for IUSB to fully exonerate Francis. Further, IUSB Chancellor Reck informed Francis that a complaint he had subsequently filed against the V-Clubāalleging that they conspired to get his article suppressed and get him fired from the paperāwill be summarily dismissed without an investigation. FIREwill also press for IUSB to address Francisā concerns in this respect.
We are pleased that our letter was successful in convincing IUSB that its previous actions against Francis were unconstitutional, unjust, and ill-advised; getting a university to admit wrongdoing is always a victory. But serious concerns about IUSBās treatment of Francis remain, and FIREwill not let the university off the hook that easily.
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