Tufts University: ‘Cox’ T-shirt

Category: Free Speech
Schools: Tufts University

In April 2012, members of the men’s crew team wore T-shirts at Tufts’ Spring Fling featuring a silhouette of a rowing team on a boat and the phrase “check out our cox” (referring to a boat’s coxswain). According to multiple accounts, several members were suspended from the team after a bias incident report was submitted due to the shirt’s content, two senior captains were removed from their positions, and team members had to write apology letters. The accounts reported a dean exerting disciplinary pressure on the team, stating that the shirts promoted rape and aggression toward women. Additionally, a confidential source reported to FIRE that Tufts’ rowing director ordered his assistants to choose a punishment, which he and the dean’s office would then approve. After intervention from FIRE, Tufts President Tony Monaco reinstated the suspended members of the men’s crew team in May 2012.

There is currently no media coverage for this case.

  • Boring Campuses: Not Just the Fault of Helicopter Parents

    April 16, 2014

    In a new article, Slate’s Rebecca Schuman laments the phenomenon of colleges and universities becoming toned-down, less playful, even boring. Schuman argues that this is in part due to parents over-planning their kids’ lives, leaving them incapable of finding creative ways to have fun when they’re older and on their own: A recent trip back to my beloved alma mater, Vassar—combined with my interactions with students where I teach and some disappointing sleuthing—has made it apparent that much of the unstructured free play at college seems to have disappeared in favor of pre-professional anxiety, coupled with the nihilistic, homogeneous partying […]

    » Read More

  • Tufts President Responds to FIRE in ‘Cox’ Case

    May 10, 2012

    Tufts University President Anthony P. Monaco has replied to FIRE’s letter of May 2 regarding the suspension of several members of the Tufts men’s crew team due to their “check out our cox” T-shirts. In an email to FIRE, Monaco states that the Tufts administration (at least from the decanal level or above) did not pressure the coaching staff to take action. If we learn any new, credible information to the contrary, we will report it. President Monaco also wrote:  I can assure you that our coaches share with Tufts University and me a strong commitment to the principle of […]

    » Read More

  • Victory at Tufts after Crew Team Members Suspended for ‘Cox’ T-shirts

    May 4, 2012

    Facing a rising tide of criticism and intervention from FIRE, Tufts University President Tony Monaco reinstated the suspended members of the men’s crew team late on Thursday, just in time for this weekend’s New England Rowing Championships. After the members wore T-shirts reading “check out our cox” (referring to a team’s coxswain), the university had suspended them, pressed as many as four team captains to resign, and asked the members to deliver apologies for the “offense” caused by the T-shirts. Kudos to President Monaco for honoring Tufts’ commitment to free speech. As I described yesterday in The Huffington Post, the […]

    » Read More

  • Censorship of ‘Cox’ T-shirt Creates Waves of Outrage as FIRE Intervenes

    May 3, 2012

    My FIRE colleague (and Tufts University alumna) Alison Meyer blogged yesterday about a fast-developing controversy at Tufts, where the men’s crew team has been punished for a rather tame double entendre printed on a T-shirt for Spring Fling (below). All involved rowers have been barred from rowing in this weekend’s New England Championships, and two senior captains have been removed from their positions. The “cox” in question is, of course, a reference to the crew team’s coxswain. Nonetheless, the T-shirt was reported to Tufts under the university’s bias incident policy, which allows complaints to be submitted anonymously, and a Tufts […]

    » Read More

  • Tufts Cuts Off ‘Cox’ T-shirt

    May 2, 2012

    The administration of Tufts University, whose infamy for disregarding the basic rights of its students and faculty members has landed the college a spot on FIRE’s Red Alert list, has added another incident to its roster of abuses. This time, allegedly under disciplinary pressure from a dean, the director of Tufts’ men’s crew team not only suspended the entire team from racing at a championship event scheduled for this weekend, but also removed two students from the position of captain-all because of this T-shirt:  The crew team had created this T-shirt for the school’s annual “Spring Fling,” an outdoor concert. […]

    » Read More