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Students also said they were discriminated against for being American
A professor used “hostile and aggressive language” when he told a subordinate to “just get it done,” according to a bias report filed with the University of Colorado at Boulder.
The report is one of dozens obtained exclusively by The College Fix via a public records request. The Fix requested the 50 most recent bias reports. Much of the identifying details are redacted, making it difficult to know the gender of the complainant.
A professor shared that their colleague said the faculty supervisor “was using hostile and aggressive language in emails to [redacted] and other department staff. One example is “just get it done.”
“I’m reporting this meeting in case the assertions of aggressive and hostile language needs follow up,” the May 27 report states.
This is not the only hearsay report filed with the public university.
“I am submitting this report to flag potential concerns regarding the misuse of gender pronouns by members of the [redacted] staff,” someone wrote on May 8. Not only did the person not know who specifically had used the wrong pronouns, they did not even witness it.
“I have not personally witnessed these incidents, but I have been informed this staff member feels this has happened,” the complaint states. “Additionally, when discussing this with the staff member, they confirmed they feel this has occurred.”
The report asks the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance to “look into the situation.”
These reports drew criticism from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which explained the free speech issues in an email to The College Fix.
The university should first determine, based on a complaint, if the action would be punishable in the first place, according to Dominic Coletti.
Campus officials “should do an initial review to determine whether the conduct would violate university policy if the facts alleged are assumed to be true,” the program officer told The Fix.
They must be careful in how they approach the investigation.
“The university should not contact the subject of the report during this review to avoid chilling potentially protected speech,” Coletti wrote. “If the report does allege facts that, if true, would violate university policy (which must comply with the First Amendment), only then should the report advance to the university’s applicable conduct proceedings.”
Universities must be careful not to create a “blacklist” of phrases, Coletti said.
“In general, policies that simply blacklist specific phrases do not allow for the kind of analysis the First Amendment requires universities undertake before punishing expression,” he said.
Still, Coletti wrote, “those phrases (even those that are, by themselves, benign) can make up part of a broader pattern of conduct that falls outside the Constitution’s protections for speech.”
A spokesperson for the university addressed a question about a reported sexual assault and said it occured off campus and to contact Boulder police. However, the media rep did not address questions specifically about free speech concerns and any policies on gender pronouns and saying “just get it done.”
The Fix replied to Jade Young-Tucker on August 3 and asked for clarification, but no substantial comments were provided.
Other bias reports include an employee stating American students were “targeted, screamed at, and “discriminated” against; the reason is “because they were Americans.” In addition, the bias report recalls that the students “were repeatedly called ‘dumb [f-word] Americans’” and received physical violent threats for it.
Nearly ten percent of cases that the Fix received dealt with discrimination based on race and ethnicity.
In one instance an employee reported on May 14 that a student asked a roommate about the ethnicity of instant noodles and the response was considered racist by the student.
Another instance filed on May 5 where a student recounts a year-long discrimination with a person when getting involved in a “Pledge to Diversity.”
In the report, the person told the student they were confused about their attendance because “they didn’t count as diverse or POC.” The person then repeatedly made the student feel unsafe with words such as if they were in the Civil War the student “would be the only slave” and just “‘pretending’ to be a person of color.”
Around five percent of cases that the Fix received dealt with speech about gender pronouns. Someone reported a presenter discussed sexual and racial issues in a way that made attendees uncomfortable.
“Some BIPOC guests even left the presentation due to the offensive nature of the comments,” the complaint stated. “[Redacted] should be held accountable for this incident and should not represent the institution at public facing events.”
