Wiseman treated unjustly

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				THE
Latest Column				VIRGINIA GAZETTE
				WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA
Wiseman treated unjustly				May 26, 2004

It wasn’t always the case that alcohol and academe didn’t mix. Socrates, Plato and their students did some of their best philosophical work at symposia where the wine flowed freely and the cups were always full. Granted, higher education in 5^th cent. BC Athens was a totally unstructured affair. Hence the unbelievably strong ties between an esteemed teacher and his eager-to-learn students allowed for an oenological conviviality that would be anathema on today’s highly regulated campuses.

Fortunately, however, there still exists between students and those few professors imbued with high instructive excellence a strong bond of respect, if not outright adoration.

For example, so great was the rapport between biology professor Lawrence Wiseman and his students at William & Mary that over 800 former and present students gathered at his Millington Hall lecture room on the last day of classes to hear the final lecture of his academic career. After 33 years of service and thousands of students taught, Wiseman is retiring.

Under the circumstances, Wiseman found it impossible to deliver his final lecture. So great was the adulation and so loud the shouting and clapping that Wiseman chucked his intended remarks and, not unlike Socrates, joined in the well-deserved celebration of his charismatic teaching career.

For this he was reprimanded by his own dean of the faculty and the provost of the college. In addition, though he had been elected by the senior class to be one of three marshals in the graduation procession, Wiseman was summarily relieved of that honor and replaced by another retiring professor.

The problem, it seems, was the presence of alcohol in the lecture room.

Yet the propriety of the reprimand appears to have been vitiated as a result of procedural miscalculations. According to the college’s “Faculty Handbook,” a faculty member must be informed beforehand by the administration if he or she will be subject to reprimand, and hence be given a chance to respond to the charges. Wiseman apparently was granted no such courtesy.

Indeed, despite what one former biology professor in a letter to President Timothy Sullivan called a “denial of due process,” Wiseman found himself compelled, on May 5, to write a letter of apology to the entire faculty of the college. In it he cogently argued that without his participation in the celebration, the crowd may well have become unruly. As a result of staying with his students – in the company of campus police officers, by the way – the students showed restraint and retained a “sense of proportion.” After teaching for 33 years and working with thousands of students, said Wiseman, “I would never do anything to embarrass our students or you, my colleagues, or this institution itself.”

The question remains as to why the dean and provost felt it necessary to bring such a distinguished career to such an ugly conclusion. We can surmise only that the college’s battle against alcohol and binge drinking lurks behind the Wiseman affair.

So compelling had the campus drinking problem become that earlier, in 2003, the Office of Student Affairs set up a “Task Force on Social Events Where Alcohol is Permitted.” The task force submitted its report and recommendations to President Sullivan on Nov. 14, 2003.

In their report, the task force found that alcohol abuse occurred on campus with regularity, and that this was not limited to social fraternities. Furthermore, many underage students were drinking without regard to the law, and entirely too many students were involved in so-called “binge drinking.” The report further contended that compliance with college policies was inconsistent, and that the majority of serious student disciplinary issues were alcohol related. Most troubling was the correlation between alcohol consumption and sexual assault.

As part of their recommendations, the task force urged that college enforcement policies be consistently applied and that sanctions for violations be “swift and certain.”

That the college has found itself in the muck of scandal as a result of underage drinking and fraternity invitations that wind up in sexual molestation charges is not news. That it has taken serious steps to obviate such occurrences in the future is commendable.

On the other hand, despite warnings from Sullivan and op-ed pieces in the Flat Hat to hold the hooch and enjoy their last day of classes in sobriety, some seniors and lower classmen were seen wandering around campus on April 30 in a high state of bacchic release. Many of them were roaming the halls of Millington at 9 a.m., well before the start of Wiseman’s class. In short, the potential for turbulence had several hours to reach the point of reality.

Yet, it seems the administration felt that, on this day anyway, the task force recommendation for swift and certain sanctions applied more to one professor who tried to prevent chaos than to the hundreds who assembled to celebrate his career.

As I said earlier, the college should be commended for attempting to discourage harmful alcohol abuse. And perhaps Wiseman exhibited poor judgment in the emotionally charged situation in which he found himself. He may even have deserved the reprimand.

Equally dubious, however, is the judgment of college administrators who targeted for needless embarrassment one of the most effective and popular instructors seen on campus in years. That they evidently botched their own procedures in the process only intensifies the acrid aroma arising from the ingredients of this capriciously cooked concoction of events.