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Ohio University prof's nude, topless photos trigger suit

Ohio University prof's nude, topless photos trigger suit

Sunday, May 11, 2003

By Jane Elizabeth, Post-Gazette Education Writer

ATHENS, Ohio -- Eight years ago, Ohio University hired renowned
photojournalist Larry Nighswander to direct its visual communications
school, figuring his
talent and industry contacts would add prestige to OU's acclaimed
communications program.

On Monday, Nighswander was fired as director in the aftermath of a $3
million lawsuit filed by a student who says Nighswander used his position to
coerce
her into posing topless for him while they were alone in a locked campus
studio.

And in a locked safe in his law office near campus, OU special counsel James
Sillery has stowed numerous photos of other students -- completely nude or
topless -- that were confiscated from Nighswander.

For now, no one will reveal how many students appear in those digital
photos, which were obtained from Nighswander's Palm Pilot and copied onto a
disk.

But because of Nighswander's international stature, the publicity
surrounding the allegations not only has resulted in a flood of calls to OU
officials
from worried parents, but it also has schools nationwide rethinking their
policies -- if they ever had any -- and the wisdom of using their own
students
as nude models.

Top administrators at Ohio University say they never knew the 55-year-old
professor was privately asking students to undress for his camera, though
many
on campus say that other professors were aware of it.

"I did not know nor would I have tolerated it," College of Communication
Dean Kathy Krendl said.

Administrators say they learned of Nighswander's habit of photographing nude
students only after Nighswander asked Rebecca Humes, a senior from
Youngstown,
Ohio, to be his model late one Monday night last fall.

Humes is demanding $3 million to compensate her for "humiliation, mental and
emotional anguish, anxiety and distress" caused by the former National
Geographic
picture editor and the school that hired him.

While Nighswander has lost his job as director of the School of Visual
Communication, commonly known as VisCom, he will finish teaching his courses
this
quarter. He loses his director's stipend but keeps his salary of more than
$80,000 a year.

He won't be back in the fall. In January, during an initially quiet campus
investigation of Humes' complaint, Nighswander asked for a leave of absence
for
the 2003-04 school year.

Nighswander was alone Wednesday in his quiet, brightly lit office in
Siegfried Hall. The story of his demotion had hit the front page of the
campus newspaper
that morning. He politely declined to speak with a reporter or be
photographed.

During the university investigation, local newspapers quoted Nighswander's
denials that he had touched Humes or behaved unprofessionally during the
seminude
photo session. He was quoted as saying he took photos of students unclothed
or partly clothed to show them how to light a subject, and that professional
nude models were hard to find around rural Athens.

William Smith, an OU attorney in charge of the investigation, said he
dismissed the sexual harassment complaint after interviewing Nighswander and
students
who were present during at least 10 of Nighswander's nude photo shoots.

In a written statement, Nighswander's lawyer, Adele O'Connor, said:

"Please be advised that [Nighswander] cooperated fully in the investigation
conducted by the university, provided a detailed written response, provided
names of witnesses, and, after a review of all of the facts, the university
dismissed the complaint. He has no additional comment."

Lawsuit statement

Becky Humes also will not comment, nor will her parents or her attorney, Ira
J. Mirkin of Youngstown. But the details from her lawsuit filed in U.S.
District
Court in Columbus, Ohio, are lengthy and excruciatingly precise.

Humes, 22, a fine arts and visual communication major who's scheduled to
graduate in June, provided a diary-like statement for the court.

On Tuesday, Sept. 17, she stated, "Larry" had asked her to model for him.
She agreed, assuming he meant standard portrait photography.

On Tuesday, Sept. 24, when she showed up in the Putnam Hall studio for the
session, Nighswander showed her photos on his Palm Pilot, including nude and
seminude shots of fellow students she knew or recognized.

After shooting a few photos, Nighswander asked her to remove her sweater.
She did so hesitantly, and then Nighswander "began unhooking my bra and he
pushed
it off my shoulders. I immediately covered myself with my arm. At this
point, I was shocked and I began to get a little bit scared. ... He told me
that
I was gorgeous and that I had nothing to be ashamed of. I put my arm down
and he shot a few pictures. As he was shooting, he continued with the
grunting
and moaning noises that he was making before he unhooked my bra."

Nighswander also touched her chest and her face, and mocked her when she
refused to remove her pants. "You're the first girl I've had who hasn't
wanted
to take her pants off,' " Humes quoted Nighswander as saying.

Upset by the incident, Humes wrote an e-mail to the dean Sept. 25, "but I
erased it instead of sending it because I wasn't sure if I wanted anyone
else
to know about this," Humes stated.

A friend later found her crying and encouraged her to seek counseling and
report the incident.

Other complaints

Humes did make a report to a university ombudsman's office Oct. 4, according
to the lawsuit, and was told, "OU had received several complaints similar to
hers concerning Larry Nighswander."

But university officials now deny that. During their investigation, they
asked Nighswander to provide names of students he'd photographed. Those
students
did not complain about any inappropriate behavior.

There were no witnesses to Humes' reported incident, and the university
closed its investigation in mid-March.

Days later, Humes' father visited the university's legal office with his
daughter and asked to meet personally with Nighswander.

"It was tense," said Nicolette Dioguardi, an OU staff attorney
and professor
who set up the meeting in Nighswander's office.

On April 16, the student newspaper published a story about Humes'
allegations after reporter Jeremy Boren, a senior from Cranberry, Butler
County, was alerted
to the investigation.

He filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the investigation files,
and detailed the incident in subsequent stories. In her lawsuit, Humes
charges
that the university violated the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act
by releasing the information.

But Boren, also a student in the communication school, maintains the article
brought attention to a topic that needed it. "This is such a big issue," he
said. "Is this something that should be going on on campus?"

Nude students?

Sexual comments and touching aside, should professors be allowed to shoot
nude photos of their students?

That question has divided photographers, journalists, artists and
professors, many of whom are friends or admirers of Nighswander's.

For decades, art schools have taught nude drawing as an essential part of
the craft. Nude models are commonplace.

But not student models, said University of Pittsburgh studio arts department
Chairman Michael Morrill.

"We call them life models," Morrill said, "and we do not
hire University of
Pittsburgh students."

At the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, "We have an unwritten policy of not
using students as models ever, except when the model doesn't show up," said
Shirley
Yee, graphic design director. "Then we might use a student, but clothed
only, never nude."

Naked students would be even more out of place in a photojournalism
department, according to professors at the nation's top communications
schools.

"In my department, this is absolutely not done," said Michael Sherer,
president of the National Press Photographers Association and a
communications professor
at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

"There is no journalistic context for nude photography," Sherer said, and
students modeling for professors "crosses the line," he said.

But some photographers criticized any such ban as an unreasonable and
puritanical aversion to nudity and art.

Photojournalism can have an art element that can include nudity, said Getty
Images photographer Chris Hondros, a Pittsburgh resident who works
internationally
and is a Nighswander fan and former student.

But faculty members shooting photos of nude students "could probably be
construed as politically unwise in today's environment," he said.

"Do I think personally that teachers should be permitted to photograph
students nude? Absolutely," said Pittsburgh freelance photographer Jeff
Swensen,
a former student in Nighswander's program at Ohio University. "But I'd have
a problem if he were harassing her."

On Ohio University's campus, however, communications students are hesitant
to publicly comment on Nighswander.

The field is tight and competitive, Swensen acknowledged, and Nighswander
has called the shots in student careers for years.

Ohio University art major Deana Dacone, a senior from the Cleveland suburbs,
knows both Nighswander and Humes. She sees nothing wrong with nude student
models -- she'd pose for certain professors, if asked -- and finds it
difficult to accept that Nighswander would behave inappropriately.

"You do not touch the models," Dacone said. "Everyone knows
that."

Still, Dacone said, she doesn't know why Humes would invent the allegations.
"I think she's putting a lot on the line," said Dacone, who was in the
Student
Photographic Illustrators club with Humes. "To have a lawsuit against a
former National Geographic editor .... That's a big risk. This is her
future."

On Friday, Dean Krendl released a draft of a new policy that would ban nude
photo shoots involving VisCom professors and their students.

OU attorneys must respond to the Nighswander lawsuit by May 23 or request an
extension.

Krendl, said the university would continue to study its policies.

Many academics worried that the allegations against such a highly regarded
industry leader would hurt university programs and the profession in
general.

"There are no winners here," said Sherer, who knows Nighswander.
"It's an
embarrassment, really."

Jane Elizabeth can be reached at
jelizabeth{at}post-gazette.com
or 412-263-1510.

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