Call for Investigation of Student Complaints Renewed

The Student Senate continues to press the university for investigation into student complaints of an improper course material charge by a professor.

Since November, Student Senate has been trying to advocate for students who voiced complaints and allegations that Professor of Architecture Jeffrey Staats sold packets of information necessary for his classes to students for profit, according to Tom Sojka, Vice President of Student Senate, who was Academic Affairs Chair at the time of the initial complaints.

After students continued to approach Sojka with complaints this semester, however, Student Senate brought the issue up again in hopes of finally reaching a solution from the university. According to student complaints, Staats has allegedly been selling a one-thousand-page packet of course-related information for $95. Staats also reportedly only accepted cash for these packets, and did not provide students with receipts.

The Student Senate first became aware of the issue early last semester. “In late September to early October, several students approached Ryan Freed [President of Student Senate] and myself … and were concerned about Staats selling notes out of his office for an exorbitant amount of money,” Sojka said.

Sojka and Freed contacted over 30 architecture students, inviting them to submit a formal complaint against Staats. The identities of the complainants were withheld from print to protect students who are currently enrolled in the architecture program. Of those students, 14 opted to file formal complaints indicting Staats for charging for a course material that was unobtainable through the university bookstore, among other offenses. This is in violation of Section 133 of the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), which requires all course material to be made known to students through campus resources. This is “to ensure that students have access to affordable course materials by decreasing costs to students and enhancing transparency and disclosure with respect to the selection, purchase, sale, and use of course materials,” according to the HEOA.

Students said that although these packets are not technically required, they are the only text for the classes and are allegedly critical to the passing of Staats’s courses. Students who sent formal complaints were from Staats’s upperlevel classes, “Building Systems: Equipment for Buildings,” and “Acoustics and Lighting.” In their complaints, students wrote that they felt it was “pointless” to bring this issue to Stephen White, Dean of Architecture, as Staats is a tenured professor at the university. Those who did go to White, however, said they did not feel that he worked to amend the situation at all.

Sojka said he “compiled the complaints into a report, and wrote a bill charging the provost, the Faculty Senate, and the dean of Architecture to action.” According to Sojka, when he and Freed approached the Faculty Senate about Staats in November, faculty members decided it would be best if the students dealt with Provost Andrew Workman directly.

While this issue was only brought to the attention of the Student Senate and the School of Architecture within the last year, there is evidence to suggest that Staats has been selling these packets for at least 10 years. On ratemyprofessor. com, a popular forum for students to share opinions of their professors and give them a “rating,” students have been commenting about Staats’ charging for these packets since 2003.

Though the investigation into the claims is currently at a standstill, Sojka said that it was Student Senate’s responsibility to speak out about Staats. “We had every right to do that because we are the voice of the students,” Sojka said. Over the course of three days, The Hawks’ Herald sought interviews with the provost and the dean of Architecture. Neither agreed to be interviewed prior to publication. Staats insisted on a faceto-face interview, but said his schedule would not allow him to speak to The Hawks’ Herald prior to publication. He declined the opportunity to simply provide a statement.