FIRE: What is Harvey Mudd Hiding?

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has written a post on their blog, The Torch, about Harvey Mudd's student handbook and Mudd's Discriminatory Harassment Policy. It turns out that it's forbidden to access their discrimination policy online. Go ahead, give it a try!

You might remember that FIRE wrote a letter to the consortium about the flagrant disregard for student speech that occurs in campus whenever they send out "bias-related incident" emails.

We've blogged about this issue several times in the past -- about how speech restrictions are illegal and how the Claremont Colleges all promise free speech and balanced discourse, but deliver little of it. You can read about that coverage from FIRE here and our coverage of the letter and the 5 College reaction to it here.

FIRE's most recent post about the Claremont Colleges concerns Harvey Mudd, the engineering/mathematics oriented school of the 5 Colleges.

They dig up Mudd's old policy, which is, as far as we can tell, still in effect.

A link to an older version of the policy is still live, though you have to know the URL—you can't navigate there from Harvey Mudd's current website (we have the link from earlier years' research). That policy raises serious free speech concerns: the policy defines "discriminatory harassment" as "behavior that creates an offensive, demeaning, intimidating, or hostile environment," and lists as possible examples such things as "jokes," "name calling," and "demeaning depictions in a public place."

So I guess whenever I feel "intimidated" in a Harvey Mudd science or math course, that's discriminatory.

FIRE continues listing the policies Harvey Mudd makes public on its website.

Harvey Mudd makes almost all of its policies--including policies promising students the right to free expression-- accessible on its website. Why, then, are prospective students, their parents, and the general public forbidden from accessing the discriminatory harassment policy? If, as the college states, it "respects the rights of free speech and peaceable assembly, and supports their exercise," it shouldn't have anything to hide.

Of course, Mudd does have a lot to hide after news broke out about their treatment of the "foxy lesbian" comment.

I guess Harvey Mudd (along with Scripps) has learned that to be open about their ridiculous policies is to be put up to public shame, so they've decided to do something far less honorable. They decided to keep the sham trials a secret.

You might remember earlier in the semester when Scripps Dean Staci Buchwald decided to keep secret what offensive thing was written or said on the wall. She promised that...

We are a supportive, caring community and bias related incidents will not be tolerated. Any time a community member becomes aware of a racist, sexist, heterosexist bias incident on our campus, a potential bias incident or hate crime, or any other type of crime, they are urged to [take] appropriate action to combat the incident.

"Combat the incident"? How do we even know it was an incident? Buchwald doesn't say.

This tactic of silence might be part of an alarming new trend where several of the colleges decide to keep students in the dark about their policies on campus. They ought to keep those files open to the public so that they can see what they are buying and what they can do once they arrive on campus.

After all, sunlight is the best disinfectant.