Addendum to the President’s Report - 11/18/2020

At the November 4th Academic Senate meeting, during discussion item 8.2, which was about the creation of Board Policy 3052, I said the following “an instructor out on administrative leave because he did drugs and slept with a student.” For those wishing to review the meeting recording, I said this at the 47th minute in the meeting. ​ ​

Yesterday, November 17, I received an email from a faculty member. The subject of the email was “campus-wide misinformation about the instructor who ‘slept with a student’” a portion of that email reads:

According to Cornelia, who read the police report, [the instructor] admitted to having had sexual contact with the student but not to having "had sex" with the student. Whether he actually did or not, you and I can speculate, but it was not in the police report that he did.

...None of us in our department is [sic] thrilled about what [the instructor] did, to put it mildly, and we have some serious healing work to do in order for [the instructor] to rejoin the department on good terms. Nonetheless, it seems right to me to not have even slightly overstated claims of what happened spread campus-wide.

In an effort to address this issue raised via email, I looked up the definition of sex to make sure I used the correct verbiage. Wikipedia offers the following: ​ ​

Sexual intercourse (or coitus or copulation) is sexual activity typically involving the insertion and thrusting of the penis into the vagina for sexual pleasure, reproduction, or both. This is also known as vaginal intercourse or vaginal sex. Other forms of penetrative sexual intercourse include anal sex (penetration of the anus by the penis), oral sex (penetration of the mouth by the penis or oral penetration of the female genitalia), fingering (sexual penetration by the fingers), and penetration by use of a dildo (especially a strap-on dildo)...Although sex and "having sex" also most ​ ​ ​ commonly denote penile–vaginal intercourse, sex can be significantly broad in its ​ ​ meaning and may cover any penetrative or non-penetrative sexual activity between ​ ​ two or more people. The World Health Organization states that non-English ​ ​ languages and cultures use different words for sexual activity, "with slightly different meanings." Various vulgarisms, slang, and euphemisms are used for sexual ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ intercourse or other sexual activity, such as fuck, shag, and the phrase "sleep ​ ​ ​ ​ together."

And now I’d like to share the legal definition of “sexual contact.” From Cornell’s Law School ​ Legal Information Institute: ​

the term “sexual contact” means the intentional touching, either directly or through ​ ​ the clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of any person with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person

With these definitions in mind, I’d like to offer that while I did say that the instructor “slept with the student,’ referring to sex, that it’s true I do not know for sure if he necessarily pentrated her vagina, mouth, or anus with his penis, finger, or dildo. Instead I was referring

to what I thought was a common understanding that sex has a broad meaning of sexual activity, which is congruent with what Cornelia read in the police report (as reported by this concerned faculty member), “sexual contact.” In my personal opnion, defining sex narrowly and only as penis in vagina is puritanical, mysognisitic, and heteronormative. And regardless of my personal opinion on this matter, it seems as though wiki does confirm my broad definition of sex by offering “any penetrative or non-penetrative sexual activity between two ​ ​ or more people.” As the Academic Senate President, I would like to offer at this time that when I am discussing instructors having “slept with their student,” I am referring to either penetrative or non-penetrative sexual activity and this is consistent with common definitions of this use of slang term.

Upon further contemplation of what I said at the November 4 Senate meeting, I realized that perhaps people have different definitions of what “doing drugs” means, which was another part of my comment, and also what constitutes a drug. As such, before there is further questions about what I meant and calls for clarification, I would like to offer what the Santa Barbara Superior Court said in the charges for this instructor:

Charge 1: On or about October 15, 2019, in the County of Santa Barbara, the crime of SALE OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES TO A MINOR, in violation of BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONS CODE SECTION 25658 a, a misdemeanor, was committed by [this instructor], who did unlawfully sell, furnish, give, and cause to be sold, furnished, or given away any alcoholic beverage to [the student,] a person under 21 years

Charge 2: On or about October 15, 2019, in the County of Santa Barbara, the crime of POSSESSION OF NITROUS OXIDE, in violation of penal code 381b, a misdemeanor, was committed by [the instructor], who did unlawfully possess nitrous oxide and a substance containing nitrous oxide, with the intent to breathe, inhale, or ingest for the purpose of causing a condition of intoxication, elation, euphoria, dizziness, stupefaction, or dulling of the senses or for the purpose of, in any manner, changing, distorting, or disturbing the audio, visual, or mental processes, or who knowingly and with the intent to do so is under the influence of nitrous oxide or any material containing nitrous oxide

Lastly, I also said that this person was on “administrative leave,” and I am afraid that is perhaps a place where correction is deserved. I double checked the board agendas and realized that this instructor hasn’t been listed as being on “Paid Administrative Leave” since January 2020. As such, I do not know the status of his leave at this time and what it would be classified as, but do know that he will be returning to his role on campus in the future.

In sum, I do not think my comment of the instructor “sleeping with” the student was an overstatement. I would like to state clearly now in the interest of posterity the allegations against the instructor: That he provided the student, who was not of legal drinking age, alcohol; he was allegedly also in possession of an illegal substance, specifically nitrous oxide; and reaffirm that I believe the instructor “slept with a student,” but specifically if it was a penetrative or non-penetrative activity, I do not know. I hope this clears this matter up so that we can move on from semantic arguments when we are discussing policy for preventing instructors from sleeping with their students at Santa Barbara City College.