State Recommends Firing Art Professor for Alleged Sexual Encounter with a UGA Student

An alleged sexual encounter with a UGA student during a Maymester in Costa Rica could cost tenured art professor James "Jim" Barsness his job.

According to a story in the Athens Banner Herald, Barsness is a faculty member of the Lamar Dodd School of Art who went with UGA students to a Maymester in Costa Rica in 2012. There, the story says, quoting documents, Barsness is alleged to have had a “public sexual encounter” with a student.

Other students saw Barness's alleged sexual encounter with the student, who was under his supervision, the story says, and this caused "substantial disruption" in the program. The story quotes a letter from Georgia state assistant attorney general Rebecca Mick saying that Barsness told the student not to talk about the encounter, telling her he would deny it so that he wouldn't lose his job.

The newspaper story says Mick characterized Barsness's alleged behavior as demonstrating “a neglect of duty and default of academic integrity, a disruption of teaching and service, and a violation of the ‘Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy.”

UGA President Michael Adams has the final word about whether Barsness will have his tenure revoked.