Student complaint escalated

Editor's Note: This is part two of a two-part series exploring why three professors and a graduate student are embroiled in a string of University court cases and the problems they've found with how UM evaluates discrimination, threats to campus safety and allegations of misconduct.

As the Kaimin reported Wednesday, a student complaint against a professor and concerns from that professor and others about the student's behavior have escalated into a complicated flurry of he-said-she-said accusations in a process almost everyone involved agrees is flawed.

After an argument last December between graduate student Wayne Moore and English professor Katie Kane, Moore filed a complaint against Kane for her lack of professionalism. After the same argument, Kane became worried about Moore's behavior and went to her chair for advice. The chair collected statements from other professors who had had similar experiences and filed a form about Moore to the University of Montana's Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT).

The CIRT is a group of administrators and faculty tasked with addressing anyone's concerns about students who may pose a risk to themselves or others. Teresa Branch, vice president for student affairs, and Charles Couture, dean of students, oversee the group, which also includes administrators from Curry Health Center, Residence Life and Public Safety.

Moore said a CIRT form was filed about him as a punishment for complaining about Kane. Couture denies that the CIRT process is a punishment.

The group doesn't kick students out of classes or punish them through the Student Conduct Code, but its job is to "identify, assess, and respond to serious or potentially serious incidents related  to student mental health, physical health, or conduct, which, if disregarded, could threaten the health and safety of the student or campus community," according to UM's website.

CIRT forms are two-page questionnaires about a student's behavior and a potential threat to the campus, classroom or themselves. Faculty, staff or students can file CIRT forms, Couture said.

The process is "designed to really reach out to students who are seemingly in some sort of crisis and then to meet with that student and offer supportive services to help that student get through that crisis or particular troubling event," Couture said in an interview. He cited issues ranging from talk of suicide and major campus-wide threats to sudden poor academic performance or decline in personal hygiene as reasons to use the CIRT process.

Brian Krylowicz, director of counseling and psychological services at Curry and a member of the team, reiterated Couture's claims that the CIRT form isn't accusatory, but admitted the team's work is broad.

"We use the term, ‘Don't worry alone,'" Krylowicz said. "It's meant to do a lot of different things and there's flaws with that and there's good with that."

But because the CIRT encompasses crisis response, Moore claims he felt he was being called a threat when his professors used the process.

After the CIRT form was filed, Couture began calling Moore trying to set up a meeting to discuss the professors' concerns, according to the discrimination investigation by UM's equal opportunity officer.

Couture refused to talk about specific details about Moore, but said this is common practice when CIRT forms are filed. He attempts to schedule a meeting to talk to the student about whatever concerns the CIRT includes, and offers the student advice on what services, like counseling, the University can offer.

Moore said he wouldn't meet with Couture because he wanted to know more details about what the CIRT form said about him and wanted to seek advice from others first. Couture declined to give him more details over the phone, and requested again that he meet with him in person, Moore said.

Because Moore didn't meet with Couture, Couture placed a hold on his registration, which prevented him from registering for classes. Couture said this is common practice if a student refuses to meet with him when asked.

When Couture refused to give Moore more details about the CIRT form and placed the hold, Moore wanted to file a complaint against Couture, according to documents related to the case.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement between the University Faculty Association and the Montana University System governs the process of student-faculty complaints. But because administrators aren't part of the union, there's no formal process for student complaints against administrators. Students can get help from the Associated Students of the University of Montana student resolution officer, said David Aronofsky, UM legal council.

To appeal an administrator's decision, students must speak to President Royce Engstrom, who will then decide whether to form a committee or ask an already existing one to decide whether the administrator did something wrong, Aronofsky said.

Moore claims Aronofsky reiterated that he needed to sit down with Couture but didn't tell him to go to Engstrom.

"There is nothing preventing the student resolution officer or the student directly from contacting the president," Aronofsky said.

Moore went to ASUM's student resolution officer in February, whose job is to help students draft and resolve their complaints against faculty members, according to their email exchange.

But Moore said that when he went to ASUM to pursue a complaint against Couture and the complaint against Kane he worked with four SROs over the past year. The position had high turnover because of graduation and stress levels. They declined to help him with his complaint against Couture and later complaints against the professors.