gazette@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (Chris Redmond) (04/13/91)
Text from today's issue of the [University of Waterloo? -- AMBAR] Gazette: DEAN PLANS DISCIPLINE OVER HOCKEY GAME SIGNS UW plans to take disciplinary action against the students who held up a "No! Means Harder" sign at a televised hockey game late in March -- just as soon as they can find them. "Everybody has their head down studying to get ready for exams," dean of students Ernie Lucy said Monday. "It's the worst period in the world to try to identify people. . . . "Even if we don't get to the people until the new term, we'll get to them." He would not say what disciplinary measures he is considering, but noted that the university's authority extends to expelling students if that seems appropriate. UW officials do think they have the authority to act in this case, even though the incident took place at Varsity Arena on the University of Toronto campus, Lucy said. "This particular behaviour clearly reflected negatively on the University of Waterloo." He noted that under the University of Waterloo Act, the board of governors -- and thus the officials who report to the board -- have the right "to regulate the conduct of the students, faculty and staff". The incident will be treated as a case of sexual harassment, which is forbidden by the UW ethics policy, Lucy indicated. The unidentified students were in a UW cheering section during a game between UW's hockey Warriors and the University of Alberta Golden Bears, which was televised on the TSN network. They held up a sign lettered "No! Means Harder" and another that said "Stop! Means Please". Those slogans are assumed to be a response to a campaign against date rape that has been conducted on Canadian university campuses, including UW's, this year. Its slogan: "No! Means No", indicating that if a woman says no to sexual activity, a man shouldn't take that as an invitation to go ahead.