Academia, Bizarre, Free Speech

Reed College Students Shutdown Classes In Protest of Western Civilization Course As “Harmful”

images-2We have previously discussed protests against literature and philosophy courses due to their reliance on white male authors from ancient Greece to the Enlightenment. The latest such protest is occurring at Reed College where students called “Reedies Against Racism” are protesting a required humanities class that explores founding works from ancient Greece and Rome.  Requiring freshman to read such works is being denounced as “really harmful.”  I have long been an advocate of the core curriculum and Western Civilization works (a love for these works that began as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago which helped establish the core curriculum or great works model).

“Reedies Against Racism” wants “Humanities 110 – Introduction to Humanities: Greece and the Ancient Mediterranean” to be “reformed to represent the voices of people of color.”  Alex Boyd, a Reedies Against Racism organizer, is quoted as saying:

“The course in its current iteration draws from predominantly white authors and relies heavily on the notion that Western customs are the most civilized because they are derived from those of ancient Greeks and Romans who are considered the inventors of civilization.”

It is true that they are viewed as laying the foundation for Western civilization and thought.  They also happened to be “predominantly white” since they were Greek and Roman.  However, we use their works for concepts that helped change humanity as a whole and still shape concepts of the individual and the state around the world.

This is one of the items on a list of 25 demands, but it is one of the most disturbing from an academic standpoint.  As I have previously stated, I do not believe that the content of our academic courses should be determined by plebiscite or protests.  Moreover, students have an assortment of courses that they may take in school. These courses require an education on foundational works that have shaped political and literary works for generations.  Indeed, these great works offer an excellent foundation for exploring and comparing non-Western works.

What also concerns me is that fact that these students claimed the right to prevent other students from participating in classes or events — a similar complaint raised against the recent protests against James Comey at Howard University.  The students interrupted a lecture and were reportedly screaming at other students who actually wanted to learn.  I have taken a harsh line on such disruptions of classrooms like a recent incident at Northwestern University.  This violates a core defining values of our academic institutions and such students should be suspended for such conduct.  There is a difference between voicing your views and preventing others from speaking, particularly inside of a classroom. When you claim the right to prevent others from hearing opposing views or speakers, you are at odds with the academic mission of these universities.

Presumably, Reed is not willing to yield to such demands on the content of its courses. Reed is an excellent school and this course is an important component to any education.  However, there is no indication of any discipline for students who reportedly disrupted the class.  The professor at the start of one of the disruptions told the students that this was an inappropriate demonstration but they ignored her and took over her class.

Professor Elizabeth Drumm, the Hum 110 program chair, is heard that the beginning of the video below saying  “I’m sorry, this is a classroom space and this is not appropriate.”  While protest organizers, Addison Bates, Alex Boyd, and Tiffany Chang were told that they were banned from attending the lecture in the future, no other action is known to have been taken against the students in denying the other students the right to attend the class — or the right of the faculty to conduct their classes.

Later appearances by activists continued despite objections from other students. There is no evidence of significant action taken by the college against these students.

These students openly attacked not just principles of academic freedom but free speech.  Yet, Reed College appears like little more than a pedestrian as a mob takes over a class room, as was Northwester in the prior incident.  The merits of the cause are immaterial when the protesters are claiming the right to stop others from hearing opposing views or works.

On the list of demands, the students demand that “Hum 110 should be conscious of the power it gives to already privileged ideas and welcome critique of that use of power.”  I have little doubt that the professors welcome critiques of these works and differing perspectives.  That is why we teach. We relish students bring passion and reasoned arguments to the analysis of different works.  However, I am not sure what is meant by “privileged ideas.”  These certainly have been dominant ideas because they spoke to a deep understanding of humanity and its struggle for truth.  These ideas rose to dominance on their own merit and have remained transcendent influences because the content of the work.  Plato is not taught because he resonates with a world perspective of white males.  He articulated early concepts of a good society and good citizen.  I suppose good ideas are always “privileged” in the sense that their inherent logic and vision distinguished them from alternative views.  These authors rose above contemporaries and still influence thought due to their unique analytical and descriptive elements.

Here is the full list of demands:

  1. Paid day for 9/26 for all Reed staff in honor of the boycott.
  2. Transparency and long-term reform regarding Reed’s involvement in exploiting prison labor and their investment in companies(i.e. Wells Fargo) that profit from the incarceration of black and brown people, (i.e. NSA and GEO stocks).
  3. Reform CSO, AOD Review Panel, and JBoard practices and sanctions to move away from carrying out racial profiling and requiring community service, and move towards restorative justice policies.
  4. Transparency regarding the demographics of students given AODs.
  5. The creation and implementation of appropriate scaffolding to bridge the gap between low-SES high schools and Reed through improving the educational services already provided.
  6. Revise the system of outreach that Reed implements within marginalized communities. Ensure that the amount of visits to low-SES and/or predominantly POC high schools match the amount of visits to predominantly white high schools.
  7. Alter the Housing Lottery to explicitly prioritize low-SES, international, and students with disabilities.
  8. The adjustment of Meal Plan costs for students in need, so that students are only responsible for meal plan dollars and Reed covers building costs as well as the fixed costs of Bon Appetit.
  9. A transparent yearly review of the off-campus housing budget in relation to inflation.
  10. The creation of a paid student position for a black student in the MRC that is specific to tending to the needs or concerns of black students.
  11. The establishment of a paid staff position to participate in the maintenance and organization of the Black Student Union.
  12. More transparency from the admissions office regarding graduation and retention rates by race, gender, and SES.
  13. The required freshman course should be reformed to represent the voices of people of color. Lecturers should structure delivery and analysis of content that is sensitive to and proactive for inclusive practices. There should be an articulated understanding that “foundational texts” are subjective and that the importance of the course is to foster student’s abilities to read, write, and listen/respond. Before this is accomplished, Hum 110 should be conscious of the power it gives to already privileged ideas and welcome critique of that use of power. This could be done by 1) allowing alternative readings that critique texts on the current syllabus, 2) making Hum 110 non-mandatory until reform happens or 3) alternate options for Hum lecture.
  14. Every HCC counselor should have a background in talking about race and queer issues. Counseling positions in the HCC are to be held by at least one black person, who has competence in addressing black bodies, with the express priority of serving black students.
  15. Mandatory conferences for building race sensitivity for staff and faculty that includes the input and participation of Students of Color. Contracting a qualified educator to lead continuous mandatory workshops and conduct check-ins with students and professors.
  16. The hiring of more tenure-track black faculty, with a greater quantity of dialogue at more consistent intervals between students and faculty search/hiring committees.
  17. Increased funding for Peer Mentor Program (PMP), ensuring that the amount of mentors and general resources correspond to the need, i.e. the number of marginalized students in the incoming class.
  18. The passing and implementation of the CRES proposal by CAPP, with the understanding that CRES is to be taught by people of color. The administration/faculty is responsible for the construction of a one-year plan for funding CRES, while seeking long-term funding for the program that will be incorporated into the endowment.
  19. The alteration of Reed’s Operating Principles and Diversity Statement, to reflect a focus on anti-racism/anti-oppressive rather than diversity.
  20. Revision of the process of investigating racial bias against tenure-track faculty through CAT.
  21. The inclusion of a question on professor evaluation forms about the general openness of professors and their handling of racial topics, gender topics, and queer topics. The addition of an optional question that allows students to indicate their race.
  22. Annual anti-oppression workshop for all students, faculty, staff, and administration.
  23. In addition to the existing grievances process, allowing Honor Cases to be brought against faculty by students, adjudicated by a review board consisting of students and faculty.
  24. Expand options for international students’ employment opportunities.
  25. Improvement of financial aid, especially the creation of particular scholarships for black students.

 

178 thoughts on “Reed College Students Shutdown Classes In Protest of Western Civilization Course As “Harmful””

    1. Segregation is now at Brown University and many others. Segregated dining, dorms, meetings, etc. They are bringing it back. How “Progressive” of them.

      1. But this is one of those things that makes you ask, “Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?” I mean, wouldn’t you love to go to an all-white mall, where you don’t have to keep your hand in your purse (where your gun is) lest you be mugged, killed, or car-jacked? Just yesterday, an 82 year old white woman was stabbed to death by two black teens who were raking the yard next to her. Her car was stolen, and now the two savages are being sought. Sooo, my mom called me to warn me about the black guys who do my heavy yard work and to watch the news on it.

        This neo-segregation thing may backfire on blacks.

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

  2. List of demands #2: Transparency and long-term reform regarding Reed’s involvement in exploiting prison labor and their investment in companies(i.e. Wells Fargo) that profit from the incarceration of black and brown people, (i.e. NSA and GEO stocks).

    These idiot kids didn’t make up this list. Had to be an insider or activist. Probably a staff or faculty member.

    1. Good point.

      The notion the youths in these displays are antagonists of the faculty and administration is quite generally false.

    2. Ken – I love Trump, food trucks and I have two gay brothers. And I am ultra conservative.

      1. CV Brown – my oldest and closest friend is a lesbian. I have known her since 1964 when she was a mature student of my mother’s at ASU in the English Dept. I was in the Theatre Dept. You don’t survive in the theatre if you don’t like gays and lesbians.

        1. Boy is that ever the truth! Of course, it is possible to fake your way through. I can certainly understand how a person can “like” gays of various ilks, because heck, human beings even like cats and dogs and stray raccoons. And gay men are not useless people, or even stupid outside of their sexual choices. Some are very talented, knowledgeable, and wonderful people to be around. But I can not understand how a person can be around them in large degree and come away thinking they are “normal.” I have always picked up on an undercurrent of two emotions in every gay man I have known – – – rage and sadness. It’s hard to watch them deal with that horrible obsession they have to scratch those two itches and not feel sorry for them.

          I hope one day science figures out what went wrong, and how to fix it.

          Squeeky Fromm
          Girl Reporter

          1. Why do you say things like this to prove Hillary right when she calls Republicans or conservatives the party of deplorables – the racists, homophobes and haters? Don’t let her be right. This is 2017. What year are you stuck in? Future Shock.

          2. The “rage and sadness” could be in response to the attitudes of straight people all their life? Thinking they made “stupid sexual choices.” Certainly, many of them believe they had no choice.

      2. A lot of Gays are for Trump.
        I follow them and vice versa on Twitter.
        Most have a desire to vet legal immigrants before admitting them to the USA, that have a desire to throw
        Gays off tops of buildings.
        They ‘get it’.

  4. Faculty members loved this new freedom. They saw nothing wrong with it. After all, tenure kept them immune from the consequences of lunacy. Besides, it gave them license not to teach but to preach their deeply held views, drawn from their isolation from the real world—and to do so with the imprimatur of moral virtue and certitude. Whatever reservations they might have had, they mostly abandoned to the direction of the students. Because the kids were in power now.

    http://thefederalist.com/2017/09/28/how-columbia-law-school-saved-itself-from-student-protesters/?utm_source=The+Federalist+List&utm_campaign=79d654a9fb-RSS_The_Federalist_Daily_Updates_w_Transom&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cfcb868ceb-79d654a9fb-79248369

  5. Every time I see these young adults behaving this way, I think of their parents. Do their parent’s know what their children are doing with the college funds? Go interview the parents. How did their parents come by the money to send them to school?

    Who can take these children seriously when they do not include the ridiculous cost of books on their list of grievances?

    1. Olly – I think there should be a federal investigation into the price of textbooks and have thought that since I was teaching college in the mid-’80s. I always taught with the cheapest text I could find. One time I found a history text that was being remaindered for $5 and made that the text for the course. Sometimes, I would teach without a text.

      1. Paul,
        These costs far exceed any rational explanation. Add in the overall cost for college and the explosion in student loan debt, someone is making bank in this industry and that likely includes those lobbied within the government. What Dodd-Frank has done to the lending industry after the mortgage market meltdown should be done within the student loan industry.

        https://www.forbes.com/sites/prestoncooper2/2017/02/22/how-unlimited-student-loans-drive-up-tuition/#5c4b5eef52b6

        1. Olly – it is not just that the cost is high per text, but they update the text every two years so you cannot get your money back from the bookstore. Of course, the corrections in the new text are minor and there really is no need for a new text, but the professor selling the text is not getting royalties on used textbooks. For a brief time, ASU prevented professors from using their own texts in their classes, but that went by the wayside under a new administration.

  7. Bents and blacks and chicks better scurry..
    When I take you out in the surrey…
    When I take you out in the surrey with the fringe on top!

    —Song Of the Reeders

    There is a fringe which makes its way to the top. When it does then the scum forms. The swamp is level. I do not know where the frig Reed College is. I don’t care.

    1. Seriously? A lot of the job providers from these schools have gone on and developed companies which employ many people in various capacities. It’s not either or – all folks matter –whether professors or plumbers. It’s these ideological idiots with their ill-thought out agendas who are destroying education.

      1. Autumn,
        I suspect Independent Bob was directing his comments toward the disruptive students. They are not interested in academics, just advocacy. Therefore, they should make themselves useful by getting a non-academic degree or certificate at a trade school, making them actual contributors to society. Plumbing would be a great line of work for those ideological idiots.

  10. Saddening. One of my children graduated from Reed College and is now a successful practicing MD. Also one of my grandchildren.

    The course in question is a central part of world history.

  11. As a college student in the 60’s, I saw idiots killing four years before entering daddy’s business argue for the same kinds of nonsense. Many of these people have become successful capitalists. One has become a sexual predator, but that is not my point. My point is that, fortunately, we have the now internet and social media. A future employer can now find out the kinds of foolishness a prospective employee has advanced in his or her youth and can hopefully refrain from placing that person in the work force.

    BTW somebody tell me what is “appropriate scaffolding” in the context in which it appears in demand #5. I had an uncle who was a bricklayer. He fell off a scaffold which, obviously, was not “appropriate”, seriously injuring his knee. Somehow, I don’t think that is what the writers of the demands meant. In fact, I doubt they know what scaffolding, appropriate or otherwise, is.

  12. Looks like Reed College’s admissions dept. needs to do a better job of weeding out the crazies!

  13. Western civilization or should I say the evolution of wester civilization resulted in the document that grants them the right to protest. I’m sick of “students” who want a spotless mind or are searching for a history of perfect people. There isn’t one!.

    Of course maybe if they took the time to study the real history of other civilizations and the inhumanity to others found therein long before Europeans arrived they might have a different view. But that would be working sooooo I don’t see that happening.

  14. This is a bourgeois, elite and very expensive college! At $54,000 a year plus $14,000 for on campus dorms, this school caters to the very privileged. But hijacking a core curriculum academic on one of my personal favorite subjects does not seem to be the most effective way for coming to terms with one’s guilt complex over being bourgeois, privilege, pampered and spoiled. It reminds me of when a Black Lives Matter protester grabbed the microphone away from Sen. Bernie Sanders at one of HIS political rallies and started blabbing away. This general disrespectful smacks of extreme narcissism with a tad of fascism for good measure. Who gives these fools the right to preempt my academic learning experience WITHOUT my consent, hence the fascist undertones, and shove THEIR beliefs and agenda down my throat WITHOUT my consent? Only someone who does not respect my best interests or needs and put their interests and needs above my own. Hint: NOT a great way to gain my attention, sympathy or patronage! If I pay big bucks to take a Western Civilization course at an elite liberal college like Reed, then hands off and butt out of my class! If I choose to see Sen. Sanders at HIS political rally, then for God’s sake let me see my candidate and express your own views appropriately at another forum WITHOUT hijacking my venue WITHOUT my consent. If there is one thing I detest, it’s being held hostage to someone else’s political rants and for them to think they have prerogative to shove their ideas down my throat WITHOUT my consent. It is no longer based on the merits of ideas. It’s boils down to CONSENT and not coercion which is fascist in nature.

    1. Peter, spot on rant IMO =) Bernie was too polite to those heifers who took the mic. But I think you hit on an important point: it’s at these elite schools that most of this PC nonsense is taking place. The future leaders aka “best and brightest” have been conditioned to be fascists. They don’t have relationships with people outside of their economic class.

    3. I feel the same about this Black Lives Matter flag/anthem protest started by Kaepernick and allowed by his coaches to continue when they could have shut it down on Day 1 like they have with so many ’causes’ other NFL players have wanted to show support for on game day and were not allowed to. It’s complete political BS being shoved down our throats. And the fans are smart enough to know what to do in response. Bye bye NFL.

      Young people today are literally being brainwashed and propagandized. These protesters don’t know history and have no interest in learning history or learning the lessons of history — and please dear God stop using the expression “we’re on the right side of history” — you are not! There is only history – no right side or wrong side. Someone please teach these kids to think.

      The day Bernie let those BLM protesters take away his microphone and take over his rally was the day he lost my respect and I wrote him off. No surprise that he lost and sold out to Clinton.

      1. I mean think about Bernie just giving in to those punks who took over his microphone and his stage. Think about that. Can you even imagine a man that weak being president? Of course not. Weakness and capitulation like that? Absolutely not. That was one of the most telling moments in Bernie’s campaign.

        1. TBob – if you read the Podesta emails, Hillary had something on Bernie to begin with and he was only going to fight with one hand, not two. That was my problem with McCain running against Obama, he never seemed to have a fire in his belly to win.

          1. Wouldn’t have mattered. For a political party to win a third turn at the Presidential wheel is now atypical and three people facing far more congenial circumstances than McCain faced in 2008 have failed at it. McCain made some mistakes (hiring Steven Schmidt and Nicolle Wallace), but he was basically facing a tsunami of bad feeling re the financial sector, even though he and the Administration were not really responsible for the crisis.

          2. I would love to know what they had on Bernie. But hey, Bernie got a $600k vacation house out of it and a million dollar book deal. He’s now worth millions. God bless America.

            1. Maybe nothing. There might have been enough material in Jane Sanders management of that college for the proscutocracy to make their life hell. That doesn’t require criminal activity, just that you’re in their cross-hairs. The nutty microbiologist accused of the anthrax attacks had spent most of his savings on legal fees and he was never indicted. Janet Reno’s justice department launched a bogus prosecution of Billy R. Dale. He was acquitted after 90 minutes of deliberation. He was still financially ruined.

    4. This is a bourgeois, elite and very expensive college! At $54,000 a year plus $14,000 for on campus dorms, this school caters to the very privileged.

      Most won’t pay the sticker price. And, no, their clientele are not ‘very privileged’. They are generally abnormally affluent, but affluent people are not typcially influential people. My vascular surgeon cannot get my parking ticket fixed, much less cadge for his clients something valuable. The best he could do would be to recommend your daughter for a job as a billing clerk at the practice of a friend.

  16. Reed is considered to be one of the best liberal arts schools in the country. Steve Jobs went there as he was trying to figure out what he wanted to do – and he is certainly a pivotal figure in history. I just hope it isn’t ruined by these SJWs.

    1. Autumn,…
      I think Steve Jobs dropped out of Reed College in his Freshman year.
      Microsoft cofounders Bill Gates (Harvard) and Paul Allen (WSU) were also college dropouts.
      They all could of been really successful with college degrees.😄

      1. Tom, that’s true – Jobs did drop out but he credited some of the classes he took at Reed – particularly one in calligraphry that led to the creation of Apple. Sure, he was a special kind of genius but his vision was developed due to his exposure to lib arts. =) BTW – didn’t Zuckerberg drop out as well?

        1. Michael Dell was another tech entrepreneur who could only put up with a couple of years worth of higher ed. IIRC, Zuckerberg finished.

  17. At least this nonsense flags universities that people should not send their kids to. I cannot imagine making demands of the chancellor. We all felt like a lighting bolt would come out of the sky and zap us if we disrespected our chancellor, vice chancellor or professors. We were required two years of Western Civ classes to graduate. The only thing we belly ached about was the amount and cost of books.

  18. Crap. Crap Crap. The SDS tried this in the ’60s and it didn’t work, it won’t work now. The entire college system is based on Western Civilization, even Gender Studies.

  19. Just another college not to send your kids. Maybe in the future they will be renting dorms on the weekends to make up for loss tuition revenues.

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