2012 CONCERT PREVIEW PAGE 18
January 30, 2012
Vol. # 95, Issue # 12
Task force formed to revise faculty handbook By PAIGE WAGENKNECHT News Editor
Edit. Revise. Repeat. This little lesson, introduced to most in grammar school, stands to make a big impact on DePaul University’s faculty. Last July, university Provost Dr. Helmut Epp approved a Faculty Council motion that issued the formation of a joint
task force, which will be responsible for rewriting the Faculty Handbook. Faculty Council approved a motion to establish the task force in June. The task force will focus on revising four policies in the handbook during the rewrite process: the definition of faculty, tenure and promotion, appeals within the tenure and promotion process and faculty grievances. Faculty input will be welcomed as well.
COMMENTARY
Snow patrol MAGGIE ACKER|The DePaulia
Winter etiquette, Chicago style By ASHLEY HUNTINGTON Contributing Writer If you have lived in Chicago between November and February, you may have noticed that the city’s seemingly friendly residents—the ones who will go the extra step to smile or hold a door for you—have been overcome by a very obvious sort of misery. And misery, thy name is winter. Whether it comes as early as October or as late as March, winter is a sure thing in the city of Chicago. While you don’t have to love it, you do need to respect it—and the etiquette that goes along with it. Yes, I said it, etiquette. The number one thing that goes out the door as soon as snow hits the ground and freezing temperatures force us to drag those winter coats out of the closet.
Dibs. No, Not the Mascot. Whether you’re new to Chicago or just never bothered to ask why old lawn chairs mysteriously make their way into the street when snow hits the city, what you’re about to read will be the most important piece of advice you receive for surviving the winter. Do not, under any circumstances, touch or remove those lawn chairs. Dibs is what most Chicagoans call the lawn chair game, as in “hey, I shoveled for an hour and rightfully own that parking spot until the
See SNOW, on page 13
Co-chairs of the task force, College of Communication Dean Jacqueline Taylor, Ph.D. and the economics department chair Thomas Donley presented the task force’s timeline for completion during January’s Faculty Council meeting. At the end of the academic year, the task force will have made policy proposals and collected comments from the full faculty so that it can write a draft over the summer.
In September the taskforce hopes to present the draft to full faculty for comments. The group will refer to the previous work of committees and other bodies and will call on the expertise of those bodies as needed. The task force’s deadline of 18 months was called ambitious but essential. An online survey invited faculty See HANDBOOK, page 6
Cyberbullying, a real threat By DYLAN MCHUGH Contributing Writer Viral videos have etched the unlikeliest of media into the public consciousness, from Rick Astley’s onehit wonder to keyboard-playing felines. Recently, however, a new type of viral act has emerged: Online bullying in the form of texts, pictures and—most shockingly—video. A YouTube video of seven teenagers viciously attacking another teenager in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood became the definition of “viral” Jan. 15, swiftly gaining the attention of social news websites like Reddit as well as traditional news organizations. The footage, originally titled “Helpless Asian Man Attacked and Jumped By 7 Others Behind School,” shows masked assailants punching and tackling a teenager, who manages to escape after about three minutes of the assault. DePaul sophomore Jeanette Estrada said the video was “horrible” and could not finish watching it. “The people responsible should get expelled from school, or at least suspended,” Estrada said. “There are different ways children and teenagers can resolve their problems, and violence shouldn’t be an option.” The video had hundreds of thousands of views in a matter of days, and despite YouTube’s removal of the original video, many users have re-uploaded it. Seven teens were charged in connection with the attack Jan. 18, one of whom is the 17-year-old son of a Cook County Sheriff’s Deputy, who is being charged as an adult. DePaul College of Education asstistant professor Melissa Ockerman noted that in her study of three Pittsburgh middle schools and one in Chicago, 47 percent of students said they had been pushed or shoved by other students, and over 60 percent said they would not tell anyone about a bullying video on the internet. Ockerman co-facilitated a workshop called “From the Schoolyard to Cyberspace: A Pilot Study of Bullying Among Middle School Students,” with Michelle Bruno and Constance Kramer
LAURA COLLINS|The DePaulia
of Indiana University of Pennsylvania at the 2012 Illinois Anti-Bullying Conference, held Jan. 20 in DePaul’s Lincoln Park Student Center. “It’s frightening and alarming that kids are filming [attacks] rather than intervening,” Ockerman said. “Posting it is their number one priority.” According to Bruno, students who witness bullying and other attacks generally defer the responsibility to report it. “The kids think ‘someone else will intervene,’ I don’t have to do it,” Bruno said. The problem with online videos, Ockerman said, is that the anonymity of the video loader and people involved can make victims feel helpless. “Kids talked about being hurt every time there’s another hit on a YouTube video—it’s like reliving the experience all over again,” Ockerman said. Bruno called for teachers and parents to be aware of technology that can impact students’ lives. “If their child seems upset because they got ‘unfriended,’ they need to know what that means,” Bruno said. To curb acts of bullying, Ockerman
said that there needs to be a systemic approach where everyone involved in the school system understands the dangers of bullying. “The best way to stop bullying is by community building,” Ockerman said. “We need to build a school environment that is only accepting of kind behavior.” However, some professors think that in order for bullying to stop, students need to stop it themselves. Harold London, a visiting asstistant professor of Secondary Education at DePaul, said that schools will have “won the battle” when students are policing bullying and harassment rather than ignoring it. “The adults aren’t going to be everywhere,” London said. “They’re not going to be in the locker room, they’re not going to be in the little nooks and crannies that the kids find where they can hide from the adults.” London, who was a high school principal for 18 years, said that bullying needs to be at the forefront and on the consciousness of everyone involved in education, although he thinks the media sometimes sensationalizes it. See CYBERBULLYING, page 6