Which is the REAL Message from Reed College President John Kroger?

Controversy has erupted at my alma mater, Reed College, over an odd tradition that has emerged in recent years, in connection with the basic Humanities 110 course, which studies Greek and Roman culture from the vantage point of several different academic disciplines, and which every freshman is required to take.  Apparently, Reedies who have already completed the course appear outside the hall where the first lecture of the year is to be held, attired (or, not attired at all) as the gods and goddesses who will be at the heart of the coming year’s studies.  Some students don’t like this tradition.

Your task is to guess which of the following three missives is the one that President John Kroger  sent to the entire Reed community, announcing that somebody has opted to treat the affair as a violation of Title IX.   Is it Version A, Version B, or Version C?



Version A:

From: John R. Kroger
Date: Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Subject: A message to the Reed community
To: community <reed-community@lists.reed.edu>

To: Reed Faculty, Staff, and Students

From: John R. Kroger, President

Last Tuesday was the first lecture in Humanities 110. A group of Reed students, following Reed tradition, greeted new first year students outside Vollum Hall. The students demanded that the new students offer libations to the gods and in return, promised good luck to the students in the coming academic year.  Some of the upperclassmen and women were dressed as gods and goddesses. Others were naked.  The students were yelling and gesticulating. One could not enter the main entrance to the building without passing in front of them or through their midst.

A community member has filed a formal Title IX complaint with the College, on the theory that if sexual assault victims had  to pass through this gauntlet in order to enter a classroom, they would have been distressed and therefore subject to a hostile educational and work environment. The very filing of the complaint itself, in turn, has aroused serious concerns about censorship of protected expression.

Under federal civil rights law, institutions like Reed must respond to Title IX complaints by conducting a formal investigation, first assessing whether Title IX has been properly invoked. If Title IX is not implicated, we need proceed no further, although the complainant is then free to pursue the complaint with the Office of Civil Rights in the United States Department of Education.  If we conclude that Title IX has been implicated, appropriate remedial action is required. We must also protect the identity and confidentiality of the complainant, to the extent possible.  And if the Office of Civil Rights enforces Title IX in a manner that impinges on First Amendment rights, constitutional litigation could follow.

As a private institution, Reed is not subject to the First Amendment, but our long-standing commitment to academic freedom, weighs heavily on any actions we might take. When the college departed from those principles in response to threatened government action during the McCarthy era, it paid a significant price for many years.

We do not in any way prejudge the veracity of the allegations or the soundness of the complainant’s contentions under Title IX. But this situation gives us all an opportunity to reflect on and discuss the meaning of diversity and inclusion. One of the central challenges of community existence is for members of the community to learn how to exercise their freedom – both their freedom of expression and their freedom to initiate formal proceedings — in ways that do not needlessly impinge upon the rights of or cause harm to others. In a highly diverse society like Reed, conflicts are perhaps inevitable, but we should do everything in our power to minimize potential harm to community members.

If you have thoughts or questions and want to talk, please drop by my office.

Thanks -- John


Version B:

From: John R. Kroger
Date: Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Subject: A message to the Reed community
To: community <reed-community@lists.reed.edu>

To: Reed Faculty, Staff, and Students

From: John R. Kroger, President

Last Tuesday was the first lecture in Humanities 110. A group of Reed students, following Reed tradition, greeted new first year students outside Vollum Hall. The students demanded that the new students offer libations to the gods and in return, promised good luck to the students in the coming academic year.  Some of the upperclassmen and women were dressed as gods and goddesses. Others were naked.  The students were yelling and gesticulating. Although they were positioned at the main entrance to Vollum, there were other, less convenient entrances available.

Apparently, some members of our community were upset about the conduct of the nude students. These community members argue that, to the extent that there were prior victims of sexual assault among the freshman class, forcing them to pass through this gauntlet in order to enter a classroom could create a hostile educational and work environment.  

A community member has filed a formal Title IX complaint with the College. Every member of the community has a right to complain to the outside world about anything that happens at the college.

I am sure that this community member believes that filing this complaint was just a harmless action.  But under federal civil rights law, once somebody invokes Title IX in a complaint, institutions like Reed must respond by conducting a formal investigation and, if the complaint properly invoked Title IX, taking appropriate remedial action.  We must also protect the identity and confidentiality of the complainant, to the extent possible, even though the identities of the students who were expressing themselves will be made available to all, and even though the possibility of “remedial steps” by the college might put them in fear of action harmful to their time at the College and, indeed, beyond.

In the meantime, this event gives us all an opportunity to reflect on and discuss the meaning of diversity and inclusion. That some might take offense at others’ ideas or expression is no reason to seek to invoke college or federal authority to shut it down. One of the central challenges of community existence is for members of the community to learn how to exercise their freedom in ways that do not impinge upon the rights of or cause harm to others.  In a highly diverse society like Reed, conflicts are perhaps inevitable, but we should do everything in our power to minimize potential harm to community members by not instituting formal proceedings that call for remedial steps against others unless it appears that there is no reasonable alternative.  All of us must remember that what appears to one community member to be no more than an exercise of the right to petition the government for redress of grievances might appear to other community members as an assault on the freedom of expression that is at the heart of our community and, indeed, as an assault on academic freedom.  Some members of the community might even think that the filer is perverting Title IX, invoking possible offense to the feelings of sexual assault victims, as an excuse to prevent expression of which the filer disapproves for other reasons.

If you have thoughts or questions and want to talk, please drop by my office.

Thanks -- John


Version C:
From: John R. Kroger
Date: Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 4:01 PM
Subject: A message to the Reed community
To: community <reed-community@lists.reed.edu>
To: Reed Faculty, Staff, and Students

From: John R. Kroger, President

Last Tuesday was the first lecture in Humanities 110. A group of Reed students, following Reed tradition, greeted new first year students outside Vollum Hall.  The students demanded that the new students offer libations to the gods and in return, promised good luck to the students in the coming academic year.  Some of the upperclassmen and women were dressed as gods and goddesses. Others were naked.  The students were yelling and gesticulating. One could not enter the building without passing in front of them or through their midst.

I am sure the students in question believed they were engaged in harmless fun. Unfortunately, the conduct of the nude students caused deep distress to some members of our community.  These community members suggest that forcing prior victims of sexual assault to pass through this gauntlet in order to enter a classroom creates a hostile educational and work environment.  

A community member has filed a formal Title IX complaint with the College. Under federal civil rights law, institutions like Reed must respond to Title IX complaints by conducting a formal investigation and taking appropriate remedial action.  We must also protect the identity and confidentiality of the complainant, to the extent possible. Accordingly, the college will be conducting an investigation into these events. The college will then take whatever remedial steps, if any, we believe are required under federal anti-discrimination law to insure that all students and employees enjoy a safe environment free from sexual harassment and discrimination.

In the meantime, this event gives us all an opportunity to reflect on and discuss the meaning of diversity and inclusion.  The central challenge of community existence is for members of the community to learn how to exercise their freedom in ways that do not impinge upon the rights of or cause harm to others. In a highly diverse society like Reed, conflicts are perhaps inevitable, but we should do everything in our power to minimize potential harm to community members by regulating our conduct in a thoughtful and caring way.  All of us must remember that what appears to one community member to be a moment of liberating expression may be highly offensive to another person with different experiences or a different cultural background. 

If you have thoughts or questions and want to talk, please drop by my office.

Thanks -- John

UPDATE

After spending the past weekend on campus at Reed and talking to current students, it is apparent that the communication from Reed's president was misleading in its emphasis on the nudity and even "gesticulating," because the real problem appears to have been that a large participant was unduly physically aggressive toward a much smaller woman.  Subsequent online posts reflect this problem, for example here and here.