Lawsuit yields student roommate
Policy may cause conflict
UNL housing director says
By Alan Phelps
Senior Reporter
Kristy Coleman doesn’t seem to mind that
the university treats her as just another student.
Coleman, a junior human development and
the family major, won a suit against the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln requiring UNL offi
cials to assign her a randomly selected resi
dence hall roommate this semester.
Coleman has cerebral palsy. Because she
uses a wheelchair and occasionally is helped by
an attendant, UNL housing officials placed her
in a single room last year.
At the time, it was UNL’s policy to exclude
from the random roommate pool disabled stu
dents who required attendant care.
It was a policy Coleman wasn’t willing to
accept.
“The old policy, I feel, was based on miscon
ceptions about disabled people,” she said, “that
we’re somehow different from an able-bodied
person.”
Christy Horn, coordinator of UNL’s Servic
es for Students with Disabilities, said the uni
versity’s old policy was based largely on dis
abled students’ desires.
“It really had never been a problem,” she
said. “We never had a student who wanted to
nave a roommate.
When Coleman requested a roommate, Horn
said, the university tried without success to find
one for her.
“Our policy has never been that she couldn’t
have a roommate,” Horn said. “We had had
students who had attendant care who had room
mates, but those were roommates who knew the
student and had requested to be roommates. We
could not randomly assign somebody without
mutual consent.”
Horn said the new policy stated students
who require attendant care, use extra medical
equipment or use trained animals can request a
single room. If Horn decides the request is
reasonable, the student will be given a single
room, knit charged the lower double-room rate.
If disabled students request a roommate,
they are put into the same random pool as any
other student. That is the process Coleman went
through this yemr, Horn said. Ifproblems arise
between the roommates, they would be handled
as any roommate dispute.
“Our attitude from the beginning was, if we
need to change our policy, we’ll change our
policy,” Horn said.
But Coleman said she didn’t think UNL
officials would have changed the policy if she
had not filed suit last year.
“They weren’t very receptive to change,"
she said.
Before filing the suit, Coleman said, she
tried in other ways to voice her opinion. Admin
istrators told her they would try their best.
“I didn’t feel like they were making a con
scious effort to do so,” Coleman said.
The new policy, she said, might help to
dispel myths about disabled students. In keep
ing disabled students from the random selec
tion pool, Coleman said, the old policy might
have sent a message that disabled students were
so different they couldn’t have roommates.
_ 44_
The old policy, / feel, was
based on misconceptions
about disabled people, that
we're somehow different
from an able-bodied
person.
—Coleman
UNL student
—-II
“In randomly assigning a roommate,”
Coleman said, “people will see that disabled
people are really no different, except in the way
they get around.”
Doug Zatechka, UNL housing director, said
the university had a policy similar to today’s
about 12 years ago. It was changed, he said, at
the request of disabled students and their room
mates.
Some students at the time, Zatechka said,
thought they should help their disabled room
mates go to class, dress or do other daily tasks,
even though they didn’t necessarily want to do
these things. Others found the interruptions of
hired attendants during the day and night too
disrupting, he said.
Disabled students reported feeling uncom
fortable when receiving help from attendants
while their roommates were in the room, he
said.
Zatechka said he saw the potential for con
flict now that the rules again provide for ran
dom roommates.
“All roommates may not be as accepting and
as tolerant as maybe they should learn to be,” he
said.
Despite possible problems, Zatechka said he
was not displeased with the new policy.
“In retrospect, as I look back, that’s the way
it ought to be,” he said.
Coleman said she and her roommate, Jenni
fer Pistillo, have been getting along well so far.
“I would sty it’s just like an everyday room
mate situation,” she said.
Coleman said she enjoyed having a room
mate.
“You have to learn to share space, how to
give and take in certain situations,” she said.
“Most of all, I like having a roommate because
I’m treated like everyone else.”
, Kiley Timpeney/DN
What’s he didgeridoo-ing?
Dan Kubicki, a junior engineering major, plays a didaeridoo in the
middle of Greenpoint Thursday afternoon. A didgeridoo is an
Australian aborigine instrument Kubicki said the acoustics inside
Greenpoint are great and enhance the sound of the instrument.
Cultural Diversity Retreat applications due Monday i
From Staff Reports
Applications for UNL’i Sixth anayal Cultur
al Diversity Retreat, a retreat aimed at helping
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln communi
ty reach cultural and racial understanding, are
due Monday.
The retreat, sponsored by the Racial Plural
ism Action Team ami the vice chancellor of
student affairs’ office, will be Oct. 9 and 10.
John Harris, special assistant to the vice
chancellor for student affairs, said he saw the
retreat as a chance for students to break down
stereotypes and barriers.
Students who are interested in attending the
free retreat must apply through the vice chan
cellor for student aJfairs’ office, 124 Adminis
tration Building.
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Relationships
Continued from Page 1
said.
If she found a faculty member was
romantically involved with a student,
she said, she would approach the pro
fessor, but not call for an end to the
relationship.
Professors who have relationships
with students do not make bad role
models, Stara said.
“Why would that make them bad?”
she said. “I don’t see the fact that
people are human as detrimental to
them being role models.”
Professors-student relationships
can be risky, she said, but friendships
between the two are important.
“Friendships tend to have a lower
level of emotion. You don’t tend to
break ofT with friends,” Stara said.
“With dating, there’s more emotional
backlash.”
But, Stara said, professors must be
careful with all relationships they have
with students—romantic or friendly.
The professor and the student must
realize friendly intentions have no
romantic implications, she said.
“The dilemma you have with
friendships is, ’do both parties think
you’re friends?’” Stara said. “Does
that mean you shouldn’t have all of
your students out to your house and
have a barbecue? No.”
A new UNL student mentoring
service, the Resident Life Faculty
Fellows Program program, encourag
es student-faculty friendships.
The friendly bonds that are made
between professors and students will
provide students with a richer learn
ing experience from the university,
she said.
“You should not exercise caution
to the point that you will not allow
reasonable conversations and connec
tions to exist,” Stara said, “because
then part of the growth that should
happen at the university can’t happen.
“Ifl ’ m so over-cautious that I won’t
talk to you then how can you grow?”
UNL's policy on faculty
student relationships
Consistent with the intent of Sec
tion 4.1 of the By-Laws of the Univer
sity of Nebraska:
It shall not be the policy of UNL to
specifically prohibit sexual or romantic
relationships between individuals
where a professional power differen
tial exists. One who enters into a sex
ual or romantic relationship with a
student or subordinate must realize
that when such a power differential
exists within a relationship and acharge
of sexual harassment is subsequently
lodged, it may be difficult to prove
immunity on grounds of mutual con
sent Should a sexual, romantic or
intimate relationship develop, despite
the admonition set forth herein, the
line officer, faculty member or super
visor bears a special burden of ac
countability including the responsibili
ty to make suitable arrangements for
the objective performance oracadem
ic evaluation of the other person in the
mlatinnshin
Relationships between a graduate
student and an undergraduate over
whom the graduate student has some
supervisory responsibility are includ
ed under tnis policy. Other relation
ships covered by this policy are, but
are not limited to, those between a
student or employee and an adminis
trator, coach, advisor, counselor or
residential staff member who has su
pervisory responsibility for that stu
dent or employee.