Macomb Community College                                             
Office of the Vice President for Human Resources                    
Memorandum
 
TO              Professor John Bonnell
FROM         William MacQueen,
SUBJECT    Obscene and vulgar speech
DATE          March 4, 1998
 
      This memorandum will confirm my verbal warning to you concerning your use of obscene and vulgar language in the classroom. As you know, our meeting yesterday was prompted by a letter of a student's parent complaining about your first-day handout titled My Semester Overview. This handout, which was authored by a former student of yours, states in part: "[t]he language that was used during discussions throughout the first four weeks or so of class, in my opinion, was very inappropriate and distasteful. Never before have I encountered an English teacher who used the word 'fuck' so openly and so frequently in a classroom discussion. In addition, the use of words such as 'pussy' and 'cunt' are simply uncalled for and very offensive to many, including me. I really feel that language such as this is very degrading to women."

     This quotation provides the factual context for this warning. Unless germane to a discussion of appropriate course materials and thus a constitutionally protected act of academic freedom, your utterance in the classroom of such words as 'fuck,' 'cunt,' and 'pussy' may serve as a reasonable basis for concluding as a matter of law that you are fostering a learning environment hostile to women, a form of sexual harassment. Federal and state law imposes a duty on the College to prevent the sexual harassment of its students and therefore requires that the College discipline you if it finds that you have created a hostile environment.

     The principle of academic freedom under the Ist Amendment serves to protect the utterances in question only if they are germane to course content as measured by professional teaching standards. Since the precise frontier between academic freedom and sexual harassment remains to be defined by the courts case by case, a teacher of English literature or composition courses may be able to find safety and comfort under the Ist Amendment only if the words uttered are found in appropriate textual materials and the utterances are pertinent to discussion of those materials. Beyond this point, the teacher enters uncharted territory and proceeds at his or her own risk of being found guilty of sexual harassment. Consequently, you are warned that a general use in the classroom of words like 'fuck,' 'cunt,' and 'pussy' outside a professional exegesis may compel the conclusion that you are creating a hostile learning environment requiring disciplinary action.

     This warning will remain in your personnel file to defeat argument that the College has acquiesced in your past use of obscene and vulgar language without regard to course content and therefore may not lawfully apply its policy against sexual harassment to you. A copy of the College's policy against sexual harassment is attached.

cc: Albert Lorenzo, Donald Wing, Gus Demas, Ruth Reed, James Vaneman, Hunter Wendt, Margaret MacTavish, Marie Baeckeroot, personnel file