TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

UT Decries Dorm Advisers' Childish Discipline Of Students

Photo from The Minaret

Students write their line assignment Tuesday night.

ADVERTISEMENT

By DANIELA VELÁZQUEZ | TBO.com

Published: February 22, 2008

TAMPA -- The University of Tampa apologized today for two dorm advisers who doled out a punishment reminiscent of elementary school: They told 80 honors students to write 30 times, "I will not vandalize the floor, and I will help prevent others from vandalizing."

"I assure residential students that this will not happen again," Nora Bugg, residential life assistant director, says in a statement posted this afternoon on the Web site of the school newspaper, The Minaret.

The writing assignment was meted out as punishment by the two residential advisers on the seventh floor of Vaughn Center, an honors floor occupied mostly by freshmen.

It came in response to vandalism and the posting of a provocative poster during an open house last weekend for prospective students and their parents. The poster said students can expect to learn about drinking and sex as well as academics at UT.

The two floor advisers called an emergency meeting Tuesday night.

"They felt we were all acting like middle-schoolers," said freshman Brianna Ebanks, 18, who attended the meeting and wrote out the statement as ordered.

The students were made to write the assignment on paper, and if they refused, they were led to believe they would be put on housing probation.

"They thought it would help," Bugg said in an interview, "but that's not something that was ever approved, nor would we ever approve it."

Bugg's message was posted on the Minaret Web site shortly after she spoke with TBO.com.

The two floor advisers, Alyssa Howard, 19, and Jamey Smith, 21, could not be reached for comment. They have been advisers since August, and their status is under review, Bugg said.

Smith told The Minaret the offense merited the punishment.

"Basically, if they are going to vandalize the floor and do middle-school stuff, then we are going to treat them like they are in middle school," he said.

Floor resident Quincy Yott, 18, thought the exercise was "annoying," but "it wasn't a big deal."

Some students, though, did refuse, she said.

"I think the people who refused to do it are the people who did it," Yott said. "They're the stupid, immature boys."

Other students were upset at having to do the assignment.

"We do spend like $30,000 a year to go here," said Fawn Testa, 19, "and I don't think we should be made to write lines."

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT