After a year and a half of disruptions against a mandatory humanities course they say is too white, student protesters at Reed College got what they wanted.
Reedies Against Racism argues that Humanities 110, “Introduction to Humanities: Greece and the Ancient Mediterranean,” has become even less diverse with the addition of texts from the Americas.
The revisions to Humanities 110, known casually as Hum 110, came after RAR staged multiple sit-ins and and attempted takeovers of class sessions throughout the 2016-2017 academic year and the first two months of this school year.
Though students who have taken the class have told The College Fix and other publications that they objected to RAR’s methods of protest, which sometimes led professors to cancel classes, a Reed College spokesperson refused to tell The Fix whether any complaints have been lodged against the group by students or faculty.
Kevin Myers, director of media relations, said that would violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that does not appear to be applicable to the requested information.
“RAR are well within their rights to advocate for what they want, but it doesn’t mean they are going to get everything they want,” Myers said in a phone interview.
He largely portrayed the protesters as using appropriate methods of dissent, playing down the disruptions that have drawn widespread media attention in the past year.
The revised Hum 110 will divide into four modules. New freshmen will learn about Athens and Rome in the first semester of the 2018-2019 school year. The second semester will feature Mexico City and Harlem, a change adopted by faculty in response to RAR demands.
By cutting “the African and Middle Eastern texts that past Reed activists fought for” and putting their replacements in the Americas in the second semester, “Reed freshmen will still receive the message that learning about white culture is more urgent and foundational to a college education,” RAR wrote in its April 11 post.
RAR did not respond to Facebook messages on April 19 and 23 asking for an interview.
The group has steadily ramped up its protest tactics. It started with silent sit-ins in Hum 110 to protest the perceived absence of minority voices in the curriculum, and then graduated to interrupting lectures, engaging in screaming matches with students and boycotting classes.
In an unrelated campaign to force Reed to divest from Wells Fargo, RAR occupied the college finance office – requiring sensitive financial documents to be moved – and allegedly harassed a staff member. That crossed the line for the administration, which enforced no-contact orders against protesters.
Lucia Martinez Valdivia (below), a humanities professor who identifies as queer and claims there are “Nazis” in the White House, described feeling intimidated by protesters who crashed her Hum 110 class.
She wrote in The Washington Post in October that protesters held up “obscene” signs and painted faculty of color – including her – as anti-black and white supremacist.
Reed’s dissent policy encourages students to express their opinion in ways that don’t interrupt the course or operation of the college, according to spokesperson Myers.
He told The Fix that students protested by holding signs and sitting in the “well,” the classroom space where professors stand to teach.
Myers didn’t elaborate on disruptions caused by RAR that have led some students to complain they are being deprived of educations they are paying for. He simply said these actions violated the dissent policy.
Silent protests ended in October following two incidents where protests interrupted classes, resulting in the school disciplining the perpetrators for violating the dissent policy, according to Myers. He said they can no longer protest Hum 110.
Hum 110 has been taught at Reed College for more than 70 years. Its goal is to “teach students how to be college students,” focusing on critical reading, analysis and “respectful discussion,” Myers said.
During every 10-year review, faculty and staff ask whether students are coming away with the proper tools to succeed and if the curriculum is doing everything the school wants it to do.
Before the protests the class curriculum was in constant flux, changing three times in the last five years, according to Myers.
He portrayed the additions of Mexico City and Harlem to the curriculum as a long process, with faculty overseers meeting more than 30 times to decide changes.
“A key reason these cities became a part of the curriculum was Reed College had the expertise available to teach these topics,” Myers said.
The college’s top spokesperson said the revisions to Hum 110 are being viewed by outsiders as “two monoliths” locked in a culture war, rather than a normal curriculum dispute.
Reed is small enough to where we know everybody by name. Even when the protests were at their worst, there was still present interaction between the protesters and administration.