Bowdoin College: Professor Investigated Because Article Embarrasses the College

February 26, 2009

Economics professor Jonathan Goldstein was investigated after he distributed copies of a research paper that embarrassed the college in front of prospective students. Dean for Academic Affairs Cristle Collins Judd instigated an investigation “in the realm of harassment and hostile work environment, as well as for possible violation of other College policies.” Judd also suggested that “issues” with Goldstein’s “research methods … may need to be considered by the appropriate faculty committee and my office.” Judd also added further charges questioning whether Goldstein failed to follow “the protocols outlined by the Research Oversight Committee” and whether he had revealed confidential […]

Student Handbook: Student Sexual Misconduct and Gender Based Violence Policy

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 18, 2017

“Sexual Harassment” means unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.  Where sexual harassment is sufficiently severe or pervasive that it substantially interferes with a student’s College employment, academic performance, participation in College programs or activities, or living, learning or working environment, the sexual harassment creates a hostile environment in violation of Title IX and this Policy.

Sexual Harassment may include, for example, unwelcome physical contact; sexually explicit comments in person or via phone, letter, note, gift, text message, email or other electronic medium; sexual advances; requests for sexual favors; unwelcome invitations to engage in sexual activity; unwelcome commentary about an individual’s body or sexual activities; threatening to engage in an unwelcome sexual act with another person; engaging in indecent exposure; and stalking or cyber stalking.  A single instance of unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature may constitute Sexual Harassment if it is sufficiently serious. Gender-based harassment may include acts of aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on sex or sex-stereotyping, even if those acts do not involve conduct of a sexual nature. Where gender-based harassment is sufficiently severe or pervasive that it substantially interferes with a student’s College employment, academic performance, participation in College programs or activities, or living, learning, or working environment, the gender-based harassment creates a hostile environment in violation of Title IX and this Policy.

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Student Handbook: College Policies- The Academic Honor Code and Social Code

Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 18, 2017

The following activities, occurring on or off College premises, constitute breaches of the Social Code:

Conduct which is unbecoming of a Bowdoin student. Examples include, but are not limited to: lewd or indecent behavior (or sponsorship thereof); physical abuse or assault; threats; intimidation; retaliation; harassment; coercion; behavior or activities that significantly disrupt the educational experience of other students; and other conduct that threatens, instills fear, or infringes upon the rights, dignity, and integrity of any person including through the use of social media or other means of electronic communication.

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Campus and Community Index: Frequently Asked Questions

Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Last updated: September 18, 2017

What kinds of incidents should be reported?

Reports may fall under, but are not limited to, the following general categories:

• Graffiti/Vandalism on any College property or in local areas that communicate offensive, hurtful, inappropriate or unwelcoming messages that represent bias;
• Bias-related threats that target an individual or community based on race, color, ethnicity, social class, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, age, marital status, place of birth, veteran status, or against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability;
• Unequal service or treatment toward an individual or communities based on race, color, ethnicity, social class, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, age, marital status, place of birth, veteran status, or against qualified individuals with disabilities on the basis of disability;
• It may also include actions indended to reinforce stereotypes and stigmas such as those associated with race, color, ethnicity, social class, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, age, marital status, veteran status, and physical and mental health, amoth others.
• Observation in which a person observes one of the incidents described above or interprets it as harmful to the Bowdoin community.

         Note: Speech and related actions in the service of academic freedom and intellectual discourse do not constitute bias incidents.

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Faculty Handbook: Freedom of Speech and Political Activity

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 18, 2017

Free speech is a constitutional right in a democratic society and a cornerstone of intellectual life at Bowdoin. Members of the college community are encouraged to express their views on all matters including controversial, political issues in the public domain. Preservation of freedom of speech is a primary task of the College; the right to express both popular and unpopular views is to be protected.

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Student Handbook: College Policies- The Academic Honor Code and Social Code

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 18, 2017

Uncompromised intellectual inquiry lies at the heart of a liberal education.

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Student Handbook: Values of a Learning Community

Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 18, 2017

Freedom of inquiry and expression – A learning community encourages free expression of widely varying views; it challenges assumptions and values.

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Making Exclusive Clubs More Inclusive

May 24, 2016

By Jake New at Inside Higher Ed Looking to end “a system of privilege and oppression,” Northwestern University announced last week that most student groups on campus must begin admitting any interested students by next year or they will lose university funding. That could mean groups like the campus food magazine Spoon University and the student-run marketing firm Form & Function Marketing, which have in the past been selective, would have to take all who want to join… Read more here.

Intolerance on Campus in the Name of Tolerance

June 17, 2014

By Monica Perez at Washington Examiner Bowdoin College officials insist that “religious freedom and spirituality are alive and thriving” at the liberal arts school in Maine but members of a campus Christian club there heartily disagree. For the first time in 40 years, Bowdoin Christian Fellowship’s club charter was rejected because it requires that the organization’s student leaders be, well, Christians. BCF welcomes members of all religious backgrounds, but expects that its leaders, who are in charge of Bible studies, prayer and worship meetings, affirm the central beliefs and morals of traditional Christianity. This year, that requirement has been dubbed “discrimination” by Bowdoin College’s administration. […]

Bowdoin punishes professor who provoked

April 24, 2009

The president of Bowdoin College has endorsed a faculty committee’s finding that an economist engaged in misconduct in research — research that he continues to maintain the college examined only because it made Bowdoin look bad.The complicated and contested history of Jonathan P. Goldstein’s dispute with Bowdoin was examined in an article on Inside Higher Ed two weeks ago. The gist of it is that Goldstein wrote a scholarly article that, he said, showed that Bowdoin overemphasized athletics; ran afoul of the college’s dean and other administrators when he sought to distribute it to parents and prospective students (interrupting college […]

Trumping Moses and Matthew

November 7, 2005

By Suzanne Fields at Townhall.com What do the Bible and the “The Vagina Monologues” have in common? Not much. But surely we can all agree that both are covered by the First Amendment, guaranteeing freedom of religion and freedom of expression. Well, that’s not so at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. At UWEC you can live in a dorm and watch a performance of “The Vagina Monologues,” but you can’t join a Bible studies group. Any resident assistant, or RA, as the live-in student counselors are called, can put on a performance of the play, and one has, but leading […]

Republican professors are scant at Bowdoin

December 5, 2003

Bowdoin College: When It Comes to Sombreros, Do As We Say, Not As We Do (Or We’ll Kick You Out of Your Dorm)

March 7, 2016

Bowdoin College—which only last year held an event offering sombreros for alumni to wear in photobooth pictures—is cracking down on students who attended a party last month where some attendees wore tiny sombreros. The event, a birthday party with a “tequila” theme, has provoked a backlash at Bowdoin, and attendees have been accused of “an act of ethnic stereotyping” by Dean of Students Tim Foster. Two other recent parties had already created controversies over racial insensitivity on campus. In 2015, Bowdoin’s sailing team held a “gangster” party that led to discussions about racism on campus, and in 2014, the lacrosse […]

‘NY Times’ on Lasting Impact of ‘CLS v. Martinez’

June 10, 2014

The New York Times’ Michael Paulson reviews the tension between student religious groups and college nondiscrimination policies in an article published today. I’m pleased to see front-page attention being paid to the fact that since the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, student religious groups are increasingly being forced off campus simply for requiring that group leaders actually share the group’s faith. As Paulson writes, student groups from Maine to California are being forced to either open their leadership ranks to students who don’t believe in the group’s tenets, or leave campus.

Rights in the News: FIRE on a Roll with Numerous Victories and Successful Videos

April 24, 2009

The past week at FIRE has been filled with victories for free speech on campus, and the media has responded. After FIRE’s victory for freedom of conscience at Virginia Tech, the St. Petersburg Times published a column by Bill Maxwell entitled “A diversity step too far.” In it, Maxwell agrees with FIRE’s efforts to protect freedom of conscience at VT, writing: Although diversity is a worthy goal, suggesting that evidence of it is required as one of the activities in professors’ annual report for advancement and tenure is wrong. As a former professor, I would not want to be forced […]

Bowdoin Censures Professor Who Dared to Report Negatively on College

April 23, 2009

Earlier this month I reported on FIRE’s case at Bowdoin College, whose dean threw the book at an economics professor who dared to distribute a research paper that had conclusions that embarrassed the college. Had he not done so, his paper would not have been investigated at all, and the dean wouldn’t have gone through every footnote looking for possible academic misconduct. All of the original charges, which included harassment and hostile work environment, failed to stick except for one “failure to cite” finding. This charge—that he failed to fully cite in one instance (in a document he self-published online […]

Rights in the News: At Maryland, Virginia Tech, UMass and Elsewhere, FIRE Cases Grabbing Headlines

April 10, 2009

Another week, another crush of FIRE cases from around the country battling for headlines. I’ll start with Greg’s Huffington Post blog on the controversy swirling around the University of Maryland campus in the wake of a legislator’s threat to pull funding from the university if it allowed students to screen an adult film on campus—which, after a hiccup or two, they went ahead and did anyway. Elsewhere, Robert addressed a brewing controversy at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst via a column in The Boston Globe, while Adam took to the editorial pages of Virginia Tech’s student newspaper The Collegiate […]

Bowdoin College Throws the Book at Professor over Embarrassing Research Results

April 10, 2009

Doug Lederman at Inside Higher Ed reports today on FIRE’s case at Bowdoin College, where a professor and his research have been investigated after he distributed copies of a research paper that embarrassed the college in front of prospective students. Economics professor Jonathan Goldstein, who has been at Bowdoin for 29 years, was interested in the amount that a college’s academics appear to suffer as a result of emphasis on athletics. His research showed that among 36 colleges, Bowdoin came in last, with the greatest amount of lost academic potential. Goldstein was interested in what prospective students and their families […]