College Round-Up

At Tufts, no sex while the roomie’s home

By Ellen Kan
U-WIRE

BOSTON – There are lots of things roommates fight over.

The Office of Residential Life and Learning at Tufts University near Boston has added a new stipulation to its guest policy that prohibits any sex act in a dorm room while one’s roommate is present.

The stipulation further states that any sexual activity in the room should not interfere with a roommate’s privacy, study habits or sleep.

ResLife’s Assistant Director for Community and Judicial Affairs Carrie Ales-Rich explained that the change comes as a result of an annual review of residential policies
that examines the previous year’s trends.

ResLife received a significant number of complaints last year from residents bothered by their roommates’ sexual behavior. Ales-Rich said this was one of the most commonly cited sources of conflict between roommates.

“There were incidents that occurred last year, and in the past, where residents of rooms started to feel uncomfortable with what their roommates were doing in the room,” Ales-Rich said. “This happened more often than we’d like.”

The sex policy, Ales-Rich said, is intended as a tool to facilitate conversation and compromise between roommates, rather than simply proscribe behavior. Ales-Rich emphasized that ResLife hopes students will be able to resolve the issues on their own instead of allowing conflicts to reach a point at which the office has to intervene.

“We want to make perfectly clear that we do not want to hinder someone from engaging in any personal or private activity,” she said. “But when it becomes uncomfortable for the roommate, we want to have something in place that empowers the residents to have a good conversation with the roommate.”

T-shirt company costs Kansas man $600,000

By Lauren Hendrick
U-WIRE

LAWRENCE, Kansas – Students proudly wearing and buying shirts from Joe College can thank business owner Larry Sinks for fighting a legal battle with Kansas Athletics Inc. that ended in a settlement in July 2007.

But the battle isn’t over.

A federal judge ruled Monday that Sinks owes Kansas Athletics Inc. $667,507 in attorney fees and court expenses on top of a settlement that ended with Sinks awarding Kansas Athletics Inc. $127,337 in damages for “trademark infringement.”

Jim Marchiony, associate athletics director, said the shirts created confusion in the marketplace and ultimately took money away from student scholarships funded by license revenue. Marchiony told the Lawrence Journal-World that Kansas Athletics Inc. earned about $2 million per year in licensing revenues.

“Every unlicensed shirt sold means a licensed shirt isn’t being sold,” Marchiony said. “Larry Sinks is still selling shirts that are not acceptable.” Marchiony said any blue shirt with “Kansas” was a KU trademark.

Marchiony also said Sinks had been contacted on multiple occasions to correct his illegal practices and Kansas Athletics Inc. did not want to go to trial.

“The amount is something we don’t have a real feeling about,” Machiony said. “It’s the message from the jury.”

Sinks, who was not available for comment Tuesday, told the Lawrence Journal-World that he didn’t have $667,507.

Sinks’ attorney, James Tilly, said he wasn’t sure what Monday’s ruling meant for Joe College’s future. He said if Sinks made the decision to file an appeal, the case would move to the 10th district federal appeals court in Denver, the next step in this process.