TO:                         William MacQueen, Vice President for Human Resources
FROM:                   Professor John Bonnell
SUBJECT:             Your Memo/"Warning" of 3-4-98
DATE:                       March 9, 1998

     I have received your "warning. " In response, I reiterate the asseverations of my memorandum dated February 23, 1998. That is, I categorically deny that I have ever created an environment hostile to any of my students. I again assert that my utterances in the classroom are germane to course content and are well within the latitude guaranteed both by the First Amendment and the principle derived therefrom called "academic freedom." This latter principle exists precisely to protect professors such as me from those with a will to pursue censorship. Nor can those who favor censorship find safety and comfort under the rubric of preventing "sexual harassment," which is clearly irrelevant in this instance, as it is to my entire career. Even the administrative custodians of so august an institution as the University of Michigan recently had their "speech code" scheme ruled unconstitutional; they, along with their confreres at this college, might profit from a professional exegesis of the First Amendment and the principle of academic freedom.

     Finally, I will no longer include the essay "My Semester Overview" in the first-day handout material because I can see that approximately one percent of the student population, or their parents, and a high percentage of administrative personnel are so agitated by what they deem very lurid English words that they either do not read the rest of the former student's observations or they fail to comprehend them if they do.

Cc:

Albert Lorenzo
Ruth Reed
Marie Baeckeroot