A Brooklyn College professor was told to change his class syllabus over concerns that a participation and effort component worth 10 percent of a student’s final grade could be misinterpreted as sexual harassment.
In a post on Minding the Campus, Geology professor David Seidemann wrote, “Here is the offending phrase from the grading portion of my syllabus: ‘Class deportment, effort etc……. 10% (applied only to select students when appropriate).'”
In an email to Reason, Seidemann said his department chair told him “the 10% section could be construed as a prelude to sexual harassment,” and had to be changed.
An investigation was initiated by the school’s Director of Diversity Investigations and Title IX Enforcement, and not because of any student complaints.
Seidemann, a tenured professor, also wrote in his syllabus, “This classroom is an ‘unsafe space’ for those uncomfortable with viewpoints with which they may disagree: all constitutionally protected speech is welcome.”
He added, “I had been using warning triangles sardonically instead of ordinary quote marks when referring to foolish PC terms. All my department chair would say is, ‘The triangles are the problem.’ I never found out what made the triangles a problem. They were ready to act on a problem without saying what the problem was.”
“My guess is that some administrator thought the warning triangles were reminiscent of the pink triangles that the Nazis made gays wear. I wonder how long the administrators deliberated before deciding that the clip art street signs I’d included in my syllabus weren’t Nazi symbols,” he said.
When Seidemann insisted further discussion be conducted exclusively over email so there would be a written record of the conversation, the investigation was reportedly suspended.
