[641] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: University Rights: Point of Information
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ray Jones)
Sat May 12 20:24:56 2001
To: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>
Cc: Presley H Cannady <revprez@MIT.EDU>, mit-talk@MIT.EDU
From: Ray Jones <rjones@pobox.com>
In-Reply-To: "Christopher D. Beland"'s message of "Sat, 12 May 2001 19:54:54 -0400"
Date: 12 May 2001 20:24:47 -0400
Message-ID: <ppw3daa14fk.fsf@PIXIE.MIT.EDU>
"Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU> writes:
> > Brigham Young makes no pretensions to be a "liberally enlightened"
> > institution.
>
> Dartmouth has no pretense of tolerating certain classes of speech
> which it deems harassing. Neither does MIT.
"Freedom of expression is essential to the mission of a university."
- Dealing with Harassment at MIT (publication of MIT Communications
Office)
"... So is freedom from unreasonable and disruptive offense. Members
of this educational community are encouraged to avoid putting these
essential elements of our university to a balancing test."
- The rest of the quote above, which annoys me a great deal. This is
the bureaucratic equivalent of "NOT!".
According to MIT, harassment by speech is not defined just in terms of
what class that speech falls into, but rather on whether it creates an
offensive, intimidating, or hostile environment (paraphrasing MIT's
policy). Repetition of the speech is one important consideration, as
is context.
This policy has serious flaws, as written. If someone in
(gender/race/social-class/dorm) <foo> overhears their professor tell a
joke to another professor about the lack of mental skills in <foo>s,
does that constitute an intimidating environment? Probably. Is it
harassment? Yes, according to MIT policy. Should it be? Obviously
not.
Ray Jones
