Editing Reed College (section)

==Political and social activism==
Reed has a reputation for being politically left-of-center.<ref name=":9" />

During the [[McCarthyism|McCarthy era]] of the 1950s, then-President Duncan Ballantine fired [[Marxism|Marxist]] philosopher [[Stanley Moore (professor)|Stanley Moore]], a tenured professor, for his failure to cooperate with the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC) investigation.<ref>{{cite web | author= Schrecker, Ellen | title= Political Tests for Professors: Academic Freedom during the McCarthy Years | work=The University Loyalty Oath | date= October 7, 1999 | url=http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/uchistory/archives_exhibits/loyaltyoath/symposium/schrecker.html | access-date=April 9, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = History of Washington State and the Pacific Northwest | publisher = Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest, University of Washington | url = http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Pacific%20Northwest%20History/Lessons/Lesson%2023/23.html }}</ref> According to an article in the college's alumni magazine, "because of the decisive support expressed by Reed's faculty, students, and alumni for the three besieged teachers and for the principle of academic freedom, Reed College's experience with McCarthyism stands apart from that of most other American colleges and universities. Elsewhere in the academic world both tenured and nontenured professors with alleged or admitted communist party ties were fired with relatively little fuss or protest. At Reed, however, opposition to the political interrogations of the teachers was so strong that some believed the campus was in danger of closure."<ref>{{cite news | last=Harmon | first=Rick | title=In the eye of the storm | work=Reed Magazine | date=August 1997 | url= http://web.reed.edu/reed_magazine/aug1997/index.html | access-date=February 7, 2007 }}</ref>  A statement of "regret" by the Reed administration and Board of Trustees was published in 1981, formally revising the judgment of the 1954 trustees. In 1993, then-President Steve Koblik invited Moore to visit the college, and in 1995 the last surviving member of the Board that fired Moore expressed his regret and apologized to him.<ref>{{cite news | author=Munk, Michael | title=Oregon Tests Academic Freedom in (Cold) Wartime: The Reed College Trustees versus Stanley Moore | work=The Oregon Historical Quarterly | year=1996 }}</ref>

===Reedies Against Racism===
On September 26, 2016, students organized a boycott of all college operations in participation with the National Day of Boycott, a national day of protest which was proposed by actor [[Isaiah Washington]] on [[Twitter]] in response to the issue of [[Police brutality in the United States|police brutality against African-Americans]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Students hold demonstration on Reed College campus for 'National Day of Boycott'|url=http://katu.com/news/local/students-hold-demonstration-on-reed-college-campus-for-national-day-of-boycott|access-date=24 April 2018|agency=KATU2|date=26 September 2016}}</ref> Following the boycott, students created an activist group called Reedies Against Racism (RAR) and presented a list of demands for the college purportedly on behalf of students from marginalized backgrounds. The primary demand concerned Reed's mandatory freshman Humanities course, proposing that the course either be changed to be more inclusive of world literature and classics or to be made not mandatory. One element of the class deemed racist by the protestors was the use of the 1978 [[Steve Martin]] song "King Tut" in a discussion about [[cultural appropriation]].<ref name="atlantic">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/11/the-surprising-revolt-at-reed/544682/|title=The surprising revolt at the most liberal college in the country|first=Chris|last=Bodenner|magazine=The Atlantic|date=2017-11-02|access-date=2017-12-01}}</ref> Students began a protest campaign against the curriculum by sitting in during lectures with signs with quotations from various African-American and non-white academics.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Shepherd|first1=Katie|title=What Do Protesting Students At Reed College Want?|url=http://www.wweek.com/news/schools/2017/11/08/what-do-protesting-students-at-reed-college-want/|access-date=24 April 2018|agency=Willamette Week|newspaper=Willamette Week|date=8 November 2017}}</ref> Other protests separate from the Humanities course also included efforts to shout down speakers, including [[Kimberly Peirce]] after she was accused of profiting from [[transphobia]] while making the film ''[[Boys Don't Cry (1999 film)|Boys Don't Cry]]''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21728688-reed-college-oregon-shows-left-v-left-clashes-can-be-equally-vitriolic-arguments|title=Arguments over free speech on campus are not left v right|newspaper=The Economist|date=2017-09-07|access-date=2017-12-01}}</ref> The group eventually focused on Reed's banking relationship with [[Wells Fargo]], based on allegations that the bank had invested in the [[Dakota Access Pipeline]] project and the [[private prison]] industry, and staged an occupation of Reed's Eliot Hall.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Acker|first1=Lizzy|title=Reed students have been camped out in the president's office for 9 days|url=http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/10/reed_students_have_been_camped.html|access-date=24 April 2018|agency=Oregon Live|publisher=Oregon Live LLC|date=31 October 2017}}</ref>

There was some opposition to the lecture protests, notably by Reed professor of English Lucía Martínez Valdivia, who stated that a protest during her lecture on [[Sappho]] would amplify her pre-existing case of [[PTSD]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/professors-like-me-cant-stay-silent-about-this-extremist-moment-on-campuses/2017/10/27/fd7aded2-b9b0-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html|title=Professors like me can't stay silent about this extremist moment on campus|author=Lucía Martínez Valdivia|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=2017-10-27|access-date=2017-12-01}}</ref> In November 2017, Chris Bodenner of ''[[The Atlantic (magazine)|The Atlantic]]'' wrote about growing student resentment toward the tactics of RAR.<ref name="atlantic" /> In response to protests the faculty decided to undergo the decennial review process a year early, as well as to complete the process in three months instead of the usual year. In January 2018, Humanities 110 Chair professor Libby Drumm announced in a campus-wide email that the course curriculum would be restructured after years of faculty discussion and in response to student feedback as well as input from an external review committee composed of humanities faculty from other institutes, adopting a "four-module structure" that would include texts from the Americas and allow greater flexibility in the curriculum which would be integrated beginning fall 2018. The external review had not in fact been completed nor reviewed at the time of the announcement.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Richardson|first1=Bradford|title=After protests, Oregon college revises curriculum to include units on Mexico City and Harlem, in addition to Athens and Rome |url=https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/feb/6/reed-college-to-overhaul-eurocentric-western-civil/|access-date=24 April 2018|agency=Washington Times|newspaper=Washington Times|date=6 February 2018}}</ref>

Following "a contentious year of protests, including an anti-racism sit-in in Kroger's office", college president John Kroger resigned, effective June 2018.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Herron |first1=Elise |title=Reed College President John Kroger Stepping Down After Six-Year Tenure |url=https://www.wweek.com/news/2018/02/10/reed-college-president-john-kroger-stepping-down-after-six-year-tenure/ |access-date=3 October 2018 |newspaper=Willamette Week |date=Feb 10, 2018}}</ref>