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In reply to the discussion: Professor Bans Student for Rape Views [View all]alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)If the student's behavior rose to the level where the professor felt the need to "ban" the student from the class, it should have been submitted to the dean of students or equivalent as a behavioral issue. If it wasn't a clear-cut behavior issue that must be dealt with outside of normal class processes, the professor shouldn't have unilaterally "banned" the student. He certainly should not have sent the student an email describing his own decision to "ban" the student. Rather, he should have reported the student's behavior to some other (process-defined) body (like a Dean of Students office) and let them handle it.
I could tell you stories of how much leeway students get in terms of behavior - without being "banned" from classes. I've seen students - college students - literally scream profanity at professors in their offices and then threaten other professors and staff - and still be allowed to return to the classroom the very next class. I've seen students who quite literally made suggestive sexual comments to a young woman graduate teaching assistant (in front of an entire class) be allowed to continue in that class. It's damn hard as a matter of process to be shitcanned from a college class.
This story is simply astounding to me from a process angle. Hell, half the people yelling "freedom of speech" and "academic freedom" in this thread have no problem with Steven Salaita getting "unhired" by the University of Illinois over tweets. But the notion that you can ban a student from a class for damn near ANY reason - wow! That I find surprising. I'm sure it's a process violation even at Reed.
By the way, if you don't know, Reed was actually one of the epicenters of the academic blacklists under McCarthyism. The House Unamerican Activities Committee actually held a hearing at Reed itself, and one faculty member (Stanley Moore) was famously fired for his views after drawn out fights with the then President of Reed, Duncan Ballantine.