Wood sent this at around 8:30 PM tonight after I emailed her at 5:00 PM asking her if she had a statement. Apparently she has been in meetings these past few days...
Thank you for your email. Let me begin by saying unequivocally that diversity and inclusion are principles that Scripps College embraces and affirms daily, as do I . They are guiding principles for how we live and work in the Scripps Community. At the same time, The Claremont Colleges are institutions of higher learning, and they foster environments of freedom of expression. Publications like yours epitomizes this freedom on campus. Sometimes these freedoms are mistreated or abused--which is unfortunate--but we do not punish or censure such acts unless the conduct violates college conduct codes or US law.
All of The Claremont Colleges have a bias incident protocol, which we drafted together and adopted collectively. I have attached that policy to this email. Bias related incidents are expressions of hostility against another person (or group) because of race, color, religion, ancestry, age, national origin, disability, gender or sexual orientation, or because the perpetrator perceives that the other person (or group) has one or more of those characteristics. However, to be qualified as a bias incident, these statements must violate one or more of the Claremont Colleges disciplinary codes, and not be protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution or by analogous provisions of state law. Actions in violation of college codes of conduct include (but are not limited to) vandalism to college and/or student property, anonymous attacks in the dark of night, unapproved statements on bulletin board, etc.
While some or many people may not like what the student in question said, or that some of the information she referenced in her statements was inaccurate, she was sharing her own opinion, voiced it in a public forum designed for sharing of thoughts and ideas, and did not vandalize, or damage College or student property to express her thoughts. Therefore, although her comments were unfortunate, they were not unlawful or against the College code of conduct. They do not meet the standard for a bias related incident.
That said, if others do not care for her ideas, thoughts or word choice, they have the right to respond appropriately, as many (like yourself) already have done. I hope this answers your questions.
Sincerely,
Debra Wood
Dean of Students
Scripps College
7 comments:
Good statement, Dean Wood. I agree for the most part. I would only ask for consistency in similar cases (hillary is a foxy lesbian, and perhaps, the white party)
Wood's distinction between free speech and violating school conduct seems reasonable. I sincerely hope she maintains this distinction in all such cases.
Deb Wood needs to be sacked for this clear case of double standards.
And I'm not white.
The major issue here is that Dean Wood takes an expansive view of what is a bias related incident in some cases but dismisses occurrences like this one. If a party that requires people to wear a certain color (CMC White Party) is racist, it's hard to see how trying to exclude people of a certain color is not.
So let me get this straight:
its OK for a student representative to post a nasty video rant or two in which you excoriate innocent non-Blacks (those horrible "others") for their perceived offenses during a sanctioned and open school function, but it's a bias related incident to post "unapproved" statements on a bulletin board?
Hmmm.
Don't get me wrong, though. I don't believe in taking away anyone's First Amendment rights by punishing them for arbitrary and fuzzily defined "bias-related incidents". There's no place for that on a college camps or anywhere else for that matter.
As the first poster said, what's good for the goose should also be good for the gander.
The problem is most people don't pay attention to what really happens. When Dean Wood objected to the white party, it had nothing to do with the title or attire. It was the offensive advertising that was not approved by CMC for distribution. Check your facts .
She had nothing to do with the Hillary comment-- that was HMC.
And folks, all our colleges have THE SAME policies for getting posters approved which require us to put our names and contact information on them.
First: if the incident must fulfill BOTH criteria (FIRST, express hostility against a person or group, and SECOND, violate one or more of the disciplinary codes), is it a bias related incident if a Scripps student post an explicitly racist message on her own whiteboard? (Maybe with a post-it note so school property is entirely uninvolved.)
If so, are there any extremely brave conservative students there that would be willing to test this? (The answer is no... too bad, because it would be amazing to watch.)
Second: as others have said, it's strange that she finds the technical definition of a bias related incident so important in this case. I would like a member of the Scripps faculty to explain to me how exactly the tortilla incident expressed hostility against a protected group.
John- why not test it on & wipe board where your mouth is.
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