This thesis is a rhetorical analysis of sexual harassment codes on college and university campuses. The situational model proposed by Lloyd Bitzer is used to examine representative artifacts from Rice University in Houston, Texas, and Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon, so as to determine whether they operate as "fitting" rhetorical responses to the situation generally and the exigence of sexual harassment specifically. The body of this analysis develops in eight stages: an introductory discussion of sexual harassment and research conducted thereon; examination of codes as ethical and situational constructs; explication of the rhetorical framework; the nature of the exigence as a historical and campus-specific imperfection; examination of the publics that create the rhetorical audience; the inartistic and artistic constraints operative within the rhetorical situation; an analysis of the two codes; and summary comments and recommendations. Within the last two sections the determinations are made that: 1) the codes do not currently function as a "fitting" response to the situation/exigence, and that 2) revisions can be made so as to promote a more pragmatic and "fitting" response to sexual harassment. / Graduation date: 1997

This study assesses the attitudes of resident college students and staffs toward the concept in loco parents as it pertains to residence hall administration. It also describes relationships between attitudes toward in loco parentis combinations of four demographic variables: university, status (staff or resident) academic level, and sex. The chi-square analysis indicated thirty-one significant relationships between attitudes toward the eleven residence hall situations and the four demographic variables. Major findings indicated that: (a) resident students and staffs were ambiguous toward in loco parents; (b) resident students and staffs were for or against in loco parents depending upon the situation (eleven situations are discussed); (c) attitudes of resident students and staffs were similar in most situations; and (d) the majority of resident students and staff members felt positively toward an objective description of in loco parentis, but this attitude did not prevail when the concept was manifested in university staff behavior in typical residence hall situations.