Education

Courses involving tobacco, alcohol and drugs called off, censored at Reed College

Font Size:

In the early part of the 20th century, radical progressive pioneer Carrie Nation became notorious for fighting the scourge of alcohol by walking into saloons with a hatchet and destroying bottles of liquor.

In 2013, the president of small, ultra-progressive Reed College in Portland, Oregon has canceled two classes and forced the alteration of two others over fears that students could be exposed to alcohol, ordinary tobacco or information about the safe use of illegal drugs.

The classes at issue are part of Paideia, a unique program at Reed that allows students, staff and alumni to organize and teach short, free, non-credit courses on any topic. Paideia takes place on campus the week before each spring semester starts. (RELATED OPINION: Time to end the drug war)

Current student Austin Weisgrau was planning to teach one of the courses, “Kombucha and Other Fermentation Basics,” reports The Quest, Reed’s independent student newspaper. The class was going to cover brewing kombucha — a trendy swill made of yeast and live bacteria — as well as the fundamentals of fermenting sauerkraut and alcoholic drinks.

About a week before the class was slated to begin, Weisgrau received an email informing him that the private school’s president, John R. Kroger, would not allow the course unless the alcohol-related portion were removed.

The concern was that the school could not ensure that all students would be old enough to brew alcohol under Oregon law.

Kroger also demanded that another course involving cigarette-rolling be altered so that participants would not actually smoke any cigarettes until the end of class.

Two other classes, “Adroit Anticipation of Awesome Altered Adventures 201” and “Put that in your Pipe and Smoke it,” were canceled outright by the school’s president. User comments in The Quest’s article indicate that “Altered Adventures” would be about how to conduct yourself safely while experiencing the effects of certain drugs. A comment suggested that “Put that in your Pipe” would involve “only legal herbs.”

School officials defended the president’s decision.

“In conversations with various staff and faculty regarding the Paideia schedule, it became clear that the concern that has grown over the years regarding Reed’s role in sponsoring classes that instruct participants in the fabrication and/or use of alcohol and other drugs compelled us to impose some reasonable limits,” a school official told Weisgrau, according to The Quest. “I sincerely regret that we did not begin a conversation about this long before December.”

In an email to The Quest, Weisgrau called the forced modification of his Paideia class “a clear breach of honorable student-administrative relations and a portentous glimpse of John Kroger’s perspective on student body autonomy.”

Willamette Week, an alternative Portland rag, notes that Kroger’s actions could stem from a broader effort to combat the widely held perception that Reed is a den of illegal drug use.

In 2010, federal and state authorities organized an unusual intervention of sorts when they met with Reed’s former president at a federal courthouse to discuss the school’s apparently serious drug problem, according to USA Today.

The feds were reportedly concerned about Renn Fayre, the school’s epic, annual three-day festival that includes oddities of all kinds and a profusion of illicit drugs. Also, since 2008, two Reed students have died of heroin overdoses. (Total enrollment is just over 1,400.)

Whatever the reason for the decision by Reed’s president to cancel or forcibly alter the four Paideia classes, the school’s dedication to progressivism is impressive in a multitude of ways. School policy mandates at least one gender-neutral bathroom in every nonresidential campus building. Free condoms — including XL and non-latex — are available through campus mail. Also, while professors grade students and send grades to the registrar every semester, students do not actually receive grades. Instead, they must ask to see the grades at the registrar. (Students with grades that fall below a certain threshold do receive notification.) 

Follow Eric on Twitter

Eric Owens

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel