[uw.campus-news] Dean plans discipline

gazette@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (Chris Redmond) (04/10/91)

Text from today's issue of the 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.