Reed College
Location: Portland, Oregon
Website: http://www.reed.edu
Type: Private
Federal Circuit: 9th Circuit
Speech Code Rating
Reed College has been given the speech code rating Red. A red light university has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech. Read more here.
Red Light Policies
Guidebook to Reed: Community Policies – Discriminatory Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy
Speech Code Category: Harassment Policies
Last updated: September 10, 2018Discriminatory harassment is unwelcome verbal, written, visual, or physical conduct that is derogatory, insulting and/or intimidating and that is based on or motivated by an individual’s or group’s actual or perceived affiliation with protected classes or categories. … All instances of discriminatory harassment are detrimental to our community and may be violations of the Honor Principle.
Discriminatory harassment is both unlawful and violates this policy if it creates a hostile environment. Harassment creates a hostile environment if it is sufficiently severe, pervasive, or persistent that it either (1) denies, interferes with, or limits a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the College’s programs or activities; or (2) creates a learning, working, or living environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or offensive.
Not only does Reed prohibit discriminatory harassment that creates a hostile working environment, but the college also seeks to maintain a supportive living, learning, and working environment for all community members, consistent with the principles of academic freedom as described in Section I of this policy. Reed encourages community members to report any behavior that may qualify as discriminatory harassment whether or not they are certain that the behavior in question rises to the level of discriminatory harassment or a hostile environment as defined above.
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Discriminatory harassment can be carried out by various means, from the use of offensive or intimidating references to a protected class (such as with slurs, epithets, or offensive stereotypes) to outright threats, and by way of various mechanisms or media, whether verbal, non-verbal, written, visual, electronic or other. Discriminatory harassment includes disparaging, degrading, or abusive words, phrases, or generalizations which are directed at an individual or group based on their actual or perceived affiliation with a protected class, and for which there is no reasonable academic, educational or artistic justification.
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Sexual harassment is any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature. It can take many forms, and includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal, nonverbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
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Gender-based harassment may include acts of verbal, nonverbal, or physical aggression, intimidation, or hostility based on sex or sex stereotyping, but not involving conduct of a sexual nature.
Sexual harassment is both unlawful and violates this policy if it creates a hostile environment. Harassment creates a hostile environment if it is sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive that it either (1) denies, interferes with, or limits a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the College’s programs or activities; or (2) creates a learning, working, or living environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or offensive.
Reed College Computer User Agreement
Speech Code Category: Internet Usage Policies
Last updated: September 10, 2018Some examples of prohibited uses are: …
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the transmission of obscene, abusive, harassing, or threatening messages …
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Bias Incidents and Discriminatory Harassment Resource Guide
Speech Code Category: Policies on Bias and Hate Speech
Last updated: September 10, 2018Reed College is a community governed by an honor principle and committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive living and learning environment (read Reed College’s Diversity Statement here). In such a community, all members have the right to work, learn, and live in an environment free of bias and discriminatory harassment. We encourage all community members to help create an environment free of bias and harassment by modeling honorable behavior; discouraging inappropriate behavior in others, and speaking up when one is the target of or witness to discriminatory harassment.
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Please contact any of the people listed below for guidance in reporting or responding to bias related incidents and/or discriminatory harassment ….
Guidebook to Reed: College Organization – Living with the Honor Principle
Speech Code Category: Policies on Tolerance, Respect, and Civility
Last updated: September 10, 2018The most common formulation of the honor principle states that any action that causes unnecessary pain or discomfiture to any member of the Reed community, group within the community, or to the community as a whole is a violation of the honor principle.
Guidebook to Reed: Community Policies- Discriminatory Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Policy
Speech Code Category: Bullying Policies
Last updated: September 10, 2018Other harassing conduct violates this policy if it is sufficiently severe, pervasive, or persistent that it either (1) denies, interferes with, or limits a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from the College’s programs or activities; or (2) creates a learning, working, or living environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or offensive. Such harassment may include: …
- bullying, defined as repeated or aggressive behavior likely to intimidate, discomfort, or hurt another member of the Reed community, physically or mentally…
Guidebook to Reed: Community Policies – Dissent
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 10, 2018Reed College considers the right of free speech, and therefore that of dissent to be fundamental to its life as an academic community. The exercise of the right of dissent is not something to be grudgingly tolerated, but actively encouraged.
Guidebook to Reed: Community Policies – Publications and Public Occasions of Expression
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 10, 2018Publications, exhibitions, public lectures, and public performances under the sponsorship of the college or of recognized organizations within the Reed Community shall not be subject to institutional censorship. Publications supported wholly by Student Body funds, or by Student Body funds supplemented by revenues external to the college, shall not be subject to censorship or editorial control by the college, by the Student Body Senate, or by any member of the academic or administrative faculty.
Guidebook to Reed: Community Policies – Public Speaking and Solicitation
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 10, 2018Reed College is committed to the principles of free inquiry and free expression, and this means that expressions of opinions that some people find abhorrent must at times be tolerated.
Guidebook to Reed: Community Policies – Academic Freedom and Responsibility
Speech Code Category: Advertised Commitments to Free Expression
Last updated: September 10, 2018[W]e reaffirm one another’s rights to freedom of inquiry and expression in coursework, scholarship, and the day-to-day life of the Reed community.
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‘Can We Take A Joke’ Explores Our Hatred For Free Speech
December 17, 2015
By Todd Seavey at The Federalist If Lenny Bruce could be put in jail simply for telling bad jokes, then Gilbert Gottfried should be hanged. At least, that’s the shocking opinion of notoriously offensive comedian Gottfried, as he explains in the funny and frightening new documentary Can We Take a Joke? Seriously, though, director Ted Balaker, a veteran of Reason.tv and (like me) John Stossel’s production team, talks in the film to free-speech-loving comedians such as Gottfried and Jim Norton about the mounting pressure on comedians—comedians, for crying out loud!—to respect the hair-trigger (-warning) sensibilities of the “social justice” crowd. Norton […]
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Campus Hypersensitivity– At Last A Pushback
March 24, 2015
By John Leo at Minding The Campus A campus debate on sexual assault was too much for Emma Hall, a junior at Brown, She had to retreat to a “safe space” because “I was feeling bombarded by a lot of viewpoints that really go against my dearly and closely held beliefs.” Exposure to ideas you don’t already have is problematic on the modern PC campus, as Judith Shulevitz explained Sunday in a New York Times article, “In College Hiding from Scary Ideas.” We are in the midst of a flurry of articles on the fear of ideas, the discomfort with […]
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Why Free Speech on Campus is Not As Simple As Everyone Thinks
March 23, 2015
By Daniel W. Drezner at The Washington Post In most of my introductory lectures where I teach, after going through the syllabus and other requisite first-day-of-class matters, I often say a variant of the following: By the way, if I say something during this class that offends your belief system, or contradicts ideas you believe to be true, or otherwise makes you uncomfortable, well, I really don’t give a s**t. You’re at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. If your core beliefs haven’t been challenged at least once during your time here, then you’re not doing it right. I bring this up […]
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Reed Student Says Prof Barred Him From Class For Views On Rape; College Says He Was Disruptive
March 21, 2015
By Richard Read at OregonLive Imagine the national headlines that would result if a professor at Reed College, a liberal-arts bastion of free speech and thought, banished a student from class for expressing his views. Indeed the Portland college did get a raft of negative publicity this week for suppressing free speech and academic debate after Professor Pancho Savery told freshman Jeremiah True that he could no longer attend Humanities 101 class discussions. True, a student from southern California, said Savery booted him after the 19-year-old disputed a statistic that one in five women in college are sexually assaulted. But a Reed […]
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Was A Student Really Banned From Class For Disputing Rape Statistics?
March 20, 2015
By Kaitlyn Schallhorn at Campus Reform A male student at the private Reed College in Oregon gained national attention for supposedly being banned from class discussions as he refuted the widely debunked statistic that says one in five college women have been sexually assaulted, but his story has suddenly taken a weird turn. In an interview with Buzzfeed News, Jeremiah True, a freshman, said that he received an email from his professor that said he could no longer be included in the “conference” portion of the class. The professor, Pancho Savery, said True made several victims of sexual assault who […]
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Reed College Student Draws Attention When He Says He Was Banned From Class Due To Comments On Rape
March 20, 2015
By Kaitlin Mulhere at Inside Higher Ed A freshman at Reed College ignited a fast-spreading free speech debate with a story about his removal from a class discussion because his comments — especially those about rape — made other students uncomfortable. Yet others at Reed said the student was making it difficult for class discussions to take place for reasons far removed from his views. Jeremiah True said in a letter to Reed faculty members that he was removed from the discussion section of his Humanities 110 course after sharing unpopular opinions on the frequency of sexual assault. He had […]
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College Professor Bans Student From Class For His Views On Rape
March 19, 2015
By Katie J.M. Baker at BuzzFeed News Reed College, a small liberal arts school in Portland, Oregon, attracts students who want to speak their mind. But when Jeremiah True wouldn’t stop talking about his controversial opinions on sexual assault in his required freshman humanities course, his professor banned him from the discussion segment of the class for the remainder of the semester. The 19-year-old told BuzzFeed News that his professor, Pancho Savery, warned him repeatedly that his views made his classmates uncomfortable before he told him in a March 14 email that he was no longer welcome to participate in […]
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Reed College Student: ‘Going To College Is A Terrifying Experience If You Are Male’
March 19, 2015
By Morgan Chalfant at Red Alert Politics A student at Reed College was barred by a professor from a section of his freshman humanities course for being vocal about his unpopular views on sexual assault. According to BuzzFeed, 19-year-old freshman Jeremiah True received an e-mail from his professor Pancho Savery banning True from the discussion section of his Humanities 110 lecture-seminar course. The March 14 e-mail alleged that True had caused his classmates “serious stress” by voicing his opinions about sexual assault, which gave the professor “no other choice” but to ban him from the conference portion of the class. In […]
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With Details of Classroom Ban at Reed Unclear, Student Speech Will Be Chilled
March 20, 2015
Jeremiah True, a student at Reed College in Portland, has reported that he was banned from his Humanities 110 classroom by Professor Pancho Savery because of statements he made about rape culture that made others in the class uncomfortable. In particular, True said he challenged the controversial statistic that one in five college women are victims of attempted or completed sexual assault. Accounts of True’s classroom expression and behavior differ among those speaking to the press. But to FIRE’s knowledge, no one has challenged the legitimacy of an email that Savery allegedly sent to True, excerpts of which True has […]
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