Academic Freedom?

Once I was asked to take over a Senior Seminar Capstone class in Communication. To be ready to do this,  I was told to sit in and kind of "audit" the current version of the class as it was being taught by a senior faculty member who had been doing it for year. Her name was Glenda. 

In this class, students would typically read 3 books, have student-led class discussions and submit thought or response papers in relation to the readings. The books aren't textbooks! The books were novels or nonfiction books like The Boys In The Boat, the story about the US Olympic rowing team that won gold at the 1936 Olympic games. For this class, there was The Boys In The Boat. Then there was The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, a business culture book by Pat Lencioni. It's a great business fable about teamwork. And the third book was a Chinese novel called Waiting. The Chinese novel was incorporated for an intercultural component of the class as a trip to China was coming up for a Study Abroad experience. 

Waiting is about a longtime married couple in China in the mid-1900s. They are on a military base. The wife petitions the court every year for a divorce but is rejected. There is this other man on the base who in one chapter rapes the wife. And the rape is described in graphic detail. The day before this was to be discussed in class, I read it and was horrified. I emailed Glenda and asked her if we could have a different class discussion and not finish the book. There was no warning or disclaimer. I emailed her around 6:49 p.m.  the night before. No response. 

I wrote:

Glenda,

Hello. I got most of the way through Part Two of this book and stopped on page 183. Honestly, even as someone who is liberal, I found this section of the book to be extremely disturbing and very inappropriate for a senior seminar discussion. There is no warning on the syllabus and nothing has been said in class.

I don't think it is good to require students to submit written work based on this or have a discussion about this in front of each other. 

I looked up several websites on data relating to sexual assault. Chances are good we probably have a sexual assault victim sitting in class.

I don't know what the best way is go from here BUT I believe finishing this book would not be in the best interests of the students. 

Dave

The next morning. I checked my email when I got to campus around 8. No response from Glenda. What the hell do I do? I didn't feel comfortable having a discussion about rape. So I walked to the HR office where the director, Lena, saw the chapter and said, "Wow. This is bad." She said the Dean was in Akron that morning and that she would reach out to her. Lena said I should ask to speak with Glenda privately outside of class beforehand and tell her your concerns. 

I got to the classroom and Glenda walks in. I asked to speak with her privately outside. No students were there yet. I said that I felt very uncomfortable having a discussion about rape and the reading. To which, she scrunched up her face and said, "these are mature adult students! They're old enough to have a discussion about rape! We've had this book before and there's been no problem." 

I said, "I'm not ok with it." 

Glenda replied, "I'll tell you what. I'll make an announcement at the start of class that if anyone is uncomfortable with the reading, they can leave class." 

I said I was fine with that. 

We walked into the small classroom. Tables were in a U-shape. Glenda said at a chair at the open end of the U. I sat to her left at one end of the U. 

Glenda said good morning and greeted the class. And then she said that the chapter dealt with rape and that if anyone was uncomfortable having the discussion, they may leave. 

So, I picked up my stuff and walked out. 

At 1:47, a couple hours after class, Glenda emailed me the following: 

Dave,

Our discussion in class this morning focused on the symbolism surrounding the rape.  Geng represents a "capitalist roader" who breaks the rules and illustrates what could happen to China if it does not stay true to its Confucian ideology.  The discussion this morning focused very little on this section of the reading.  The students were more interested in questions about why Lin tried to find another man for Manna as well as who of the 3 main characters were most free.  We actually had a very good discussion about how difficult it is to dislodge our Western interpretations when reading through a Chinese lens.  The students are actually interested in how this all turns out and anxious to finish the story. I wouldn't ask them to stop at this juncture.  At the end of class, I asked them to give me their candid opinions regarding the graphic nature of the rape scene and if they were offended.  They stated that they would not assign the book to first year students, but that by their senior year it was actually less graphic and disturbing than what they see on "Criminal Minds" and Netflix.  They felt the scene was not gratuitous violence and felt it served a central purpose in the author's thesis and that things like this happen in life. Perhaps I should have warned them that a rape scene was in Book II, but I think we may do them a disservice by assuming they are unable to maturely recognize that books can make them uncomfortable and bad things happen in life. A couple of the students were more disturbed by Joe's father leaving him alone on the porch than the rape of Manna. If we had not talked about the event and critically addressed its intent and what we can learn from it, I could see how that might be irresponsible.  If you would like to discuss this further, I am available.  I doubt it will arise in our discussion of the last part of the book.

Glenda

What the hell??????

They stated that they would not assign the book to first year students, but that by their senior year it was actually less graphic and disturbing than what they see on "Criminal Minds" and Netflix.

So is Criminal Mind and Netflix the barometer for what's appropriate for class?????

Also, she wrote: we may do them a disservice by assuming they are unable to maturely recognize that books can make them uncomfortable and bad things happen in life. 

****You know, it is possible to talk about other cultures or any other subject without making them uncomfortable. 

Especially not satisfied with this, I arranged to meet with the Dean. I sat down with the dean (Julie) and told her about it and Glenda's email. 

Dean Julie said, "It's her academic freedom." 

I said, "Dean Julie, so if our political science prof wants to talk about Donald Trump and Storm Daniels, he can show her porn movies?" 

Dean Julie:  It's her academic freedom. 

Of all the thousands and millions of things to include for an intercultural component in class, Chinese novel was used that had a graphic description of rape? 

We could have used a film, a tv show, or a different book? But why use a book from the mid-1900s, World War II era for this? 

Statistics show that 1 in 5 women will have been a victim of sexual assault by the time they get to college. Guess what. Of the 8 students in class, there was 1 woman who confided to me that she fought off her attacker. She said she appreciated that I was looking out for the students. 

I taught senior seminar the next two years. I did not use Waiting. And when another comm professor named Sheila took over, she did not use the book, even though she suggested to Glenda to use the book because it came from her grad school career. 

I will take being wrong on this every time. I would rather teach in an environment of comfort and enjoyment rather than making students have conversations about uncomfortable topics. 

#sexualassualt   #waiting    #academicfreedom