CORRECTION:
Last week’s cover story, “Higher Ed,” erred in its description of a yearly campus celebration at Reed College of the chemical element nitrogen. The correct title of that event is “Nitrogen Day.” WW regrets the error. Also, readers asserted that an anonymous young man described in the story suffering a bad trip was not a Reed student, as the story reported. Reed College was unable to confirm whether that person was or wasn’t a student.
As of press time, almost 500 responses, many expressing harsh criticism of Willamette Week, had been posted on our website. To view them, go to wweek.com/editorial/3427/10980. To hear a podcast from Tuesday’s “Think Out Loud” broadcast about “Higher Ed” on OPB, go to opb.org/thinkoutloud.
Here are some of the responses to the article:
ONE-SIDED CARICATURE
On behalf of the Reed College community, I write to express my profound disappointment in Willamette Week’s article on drugs at Reed [“Higher Ed,” May 14, 2008]. We certainly have serious concerns about substance abuse on this campus, and, like our counterparts at every college and university, we search diligently for wisdom on how most effectively and humanely to deal with this national issue. Unfortunately, Willamette Week provides none. Instead, the article offers a one-sided caricature, peppered with error, innuendo and misrepresentation.
The article repeatedly alleges that Reed students suffer no consequences from the college for drug use; in fact, students face disciplinary action including probation, suspension, expulsion, and mandatory medical leave. The reporter describes a campus community that was callous and indifferent to Alex Lluch’s death from a heroin overdose, ignoring evidence to the contrary, some of which he directly observed, including four heartfelt memorial celebrations of Alex’s life, a public forum on drug use attended by some 250 students, and numerous other discussions and meetings on the topic. And, he completely fails to situate the Reed story in the larger context of drug and alcohol abuse on college campuses nationwide, and the rise in heroin overdoses throughout Oregon last year. (For a list of errors, distortions, and misrepresentations, contact Mitchell Hartman, Reed College Director of Communications, at editor@reed.edu.)
By publishing a story based on shoddy and biased reporting, Willamette Week discredits itself and fails readers who seek to understand this complex and important issue.
Colin S. Diver
President, Reed College
PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE
I am the proud mom of a Reed junior who transferred from a small Christian college in the Midwest. Although our daughter’s former college is well-regarded academically, we felt that its strict social policies (while retaining a blind eye to the rather widespread alcohol abuse among its students) did not provide the latitude or openness for a thoughtful transition into the world of adult decision-making.
Our daughter wished for an academically intense atmosphere where students and administrators could approach such issues directly, emphasizing health and safety rather than hollow moralizing. Our own family policy regarding alcohol and drug abuse was one in which we taught regard for appropriate social behavior along with a fond affection for our brain cells. Given Reed’s academic rigor (and far from the drug-addled minds that were portrayed in Mr. Pitkin’s story), I am convinced that no student could graduate from Reed if they chose “substances over substance.” We have two older children who attended our state’s largest universities as undergraduates. Needless to say, their own exposure to the array of social events during those years was wide and varied! As graduate students in the fields of social work and law, both have come to concur that the most effective way to eliminate drug abuse is through education and rehabilitation rather than by punitive measures. And, while some drug abusers victimize others, drugs are not a universal prerequisite to violent or other anti-social behaviors. With those thoughts in mind, I want to lend my support to Reed, its students and administrators as they tackle a complicated issue honestly and with the proper nuance that it deserves.
As for Mr. Pitkin: People see what they want to see. A reporter who goes to Reed (or to any college) during a time of festivities looking for rampant drug use will probably find “evidence” to support that claim. As my husband, our daughter and I evaluated the merits of Reed College, we chose to see the stellar academics, the community of intellectual peers, and the lifelong friendships that she would make. Neither she, nor Reed College, has failed us in that regard.
Barbara Warschefsky
Sheridan, Mich.
CHASE A DIFFERENT AMBULANCE
I don’t blame Reed’s security forces for repeatedly kicking your reporter off of the campus. Your article on the drug culture at Reed is a sensationalist hit piece that capitalizes on the tragic death of a young person with a drug problem. The fact that you would wait until the closing paragraphs of the article to disclose that Alejandro Lluch had struggled with heroin addiction prior to coming to Reed is nothing short of shameful. Just as our society’s harsh, overly punitive drug laws failed to save this young man’s life, the permissive drug policies of Reed College have nothing to do with the tragically poor decisions made by Lluch in this isolated incident.
I suggest that James Pitkin find another ambulance to chase.
Ryan Van Loh
Southeast Alder Street
DISTORTS & DISRESPECTS
I think the comments made by Reed students [on WWeek.com] point out something that the article missed: the way in which we as students are trying to process, discuss, and reflect on drug use as well as the loss of someone in our community. Far from being dismissive about the importance of figuring out how we at Reed need to change, I think Reed students and many staff have been incredibly reflective and supportive of each other in this process, and that this article distorts and disrespects that work.
Genevieve R.
Via wweek.com
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I?d like to go one step further than the Willamette Week article and ask the following question: What happens when a societal unit insulates itself from the laws of the common people and instead relies on the integrity of the individuals within the group? The consequence is a mandate of silence that enables a gradual but steady moral decline. The final result is the abhorrent tolerance of pedophilia within the Catholic Church; the criminal brutality of the Chicago police department practiced against the citizens it is sworn to protect; it is Watergate; it is Enron; it is Nazism; it is mayhem.
Reed College is nurturing an environment that actively teaches its student body that the laws of this country are meant to protect them from the less privileged and not vice versa. Reed?s pro-drug policy proves to the impressionable youth under their influence that environments can successfully be created where laws are flaunted without concern for repercussions.
Is that the lesson we want Reed to endorse and exhibit for the future leaders of our country? In so doing, Reed has violated Oregon law. Will we stand by and allow this to continue? We do have a choice.
Rather silly of you to assert that Reed teaches students to disdain the laws of the "common" people. Reed teaches its students to use their education, intelligence and reason to examine and discuss such things and come to their own conclusions. Reed does not support/encourage students to use drugs. It just refuses to turn them over to the police for such violations, and instead handles such matters within the college. You seem to forget that many of our laws in this country have been discriminatory and wrong, and there is precedent for Reed students to be very willing to debate and fight for what they believe is right. Remember laws such as the ones that disallowed marriage between people of different races? McCarthy-era political attacks and laws that destroyed so many people's lives? Laws determining what kind of sexual acts you were allowed to participate in in your own home? These are all subjects that were once topics of debate on the Reed campus, and led to many students joining in the fight to overturn and fix them. The fact that Reed encourages its students to THINK and DEBATE is one of its greatest strengths as an academic institution. Drugs are everywhere in our society. Our laws criminalizing drugs (the "war" on drugs) have failed to even make a dent in the problem. Sticking people in prison for the crime of addiction is costly and ineffective. I'm glad that Reed students and professors don't just blindly assume all laws are good. I'm glad they are willing to discuss, in the open, these kinds of topics, and challenge them at times. And I'm glad that Reed does all that it does to help its students overcome addictions, without involving the police and our current biased court system. Good for you, Reed. Keep it up. It's better than making hard-and-fast rules about drug use and then ignoring the reality because you have such a policy. Reed faces its problems in an open and upfront manner (within its community), and I think society as a whole could learn a lot from their approach.
And this is what we, as Reedies, get for being unconventional. Obviously most of Portland has not yet caught up and has no idea how things operate at Reed." Thank you, so much Mr. International, for the enlightenment. Just so much trash at your doorstep. Check.
My my my, tough to rise above being "trash at the doorstep" of oh so fucking precious Reed. Perhaps if Portland were to simply disappear, as a courtesy to Reed and to the superior little minds that it babysits, everything would be fine. There would be the immediate problem of whom would be in charge of cleaning the toilets, serving the food, and DRAGGING THE DEAD BODIES OF OD VICTIMS OFF OF CAMPUS, but the brilliant minds of the misunderstood populace of our betters at Reed will figure all of that out. After all, I, as an adult, generally should look to the smarmy, self-satisfied little pukes at Reed to light the way for me, right? It sure as hell isn't possible that I, or others, as non-Reedies, would have a clue, as so much trash at their doorstep. How dare the minions who populate Portland defile the pristine, rarified lives of such perfect examples of human perfection. All bow in unison.
How does a Reedie screw in a lightbulb? Reedies just need to hold it up to the socket and it screws itself in as the world revolves around them.
"You just don't understand!" Get over yourselves, yes, most of us who care to comment do. It would be you, with your condescension, arrogance and self righteous defensiveness, who simply "don't understand" it. You try to deflect your crap (or perhaps I ought to say, sweep your trash at the doorstep of Portland). Don't forget, you little bellybutton-gazing narcissists, Portland was here before you, and you are so minor to the lives of the folks who make this wonderful city what it is, that each and every one of you needs to figure out that you're A GUEST, AND YOUR WELCOME CAN BE REVOKED AT ANY POINT. We don't serve you, we exist regardless of you. What's cool about Portland is so regardless of you and your little self-servingly closed clique. Get off your high horse - we tolerate you, don't push it. By all means, Mr. Andrew Snyder, when you're done brushing the garbage that is Portland off of your otherwise pristine doorstep, maybe you, Mr. International, could immediately fuck off. I wouldn't have any problem offering other incentives. Peace, my Best Bro. Love your site at http://www.byrdfestival.org/pages/cantores/andrew_snyder.html
A big, huge hug to Ruth, and a raised fist of friendship and respect to Mr. Michael Babbick, rest in peace main man.
If you think we are ALL arrogant, and that we are ALL condescending, and ALL spoiled and conceited, I have a message for you:
YOU are painting A GROUP OF PEOPLE with ONE BRUSH. You, in doing this, are treating every reedie with arrogance, every reedie with condescension, every reedie with hostility, and judgment.
I've been in this town since '92, and I graduated in '01 from Reed College. I think all I've ever really heard from most folks is how we are all arrogant pricks with tons of money who are socially mal-adjusted. I hear this, usually, before anyone bothers to give me a chance (I'm none of those things).
It sucks living in a town where your local paper does a hit job on you, and then so many others pile it on, insulting you, without ever giving a whole mass of people the chance to be individuals. That, and then WE are the ones accused of being arrogant and condescending.
If you've treated us this way consistently, I invite you to do one of two things: reconsider, be fair, and grow some in the process, or, if that just seems unreasonable, kindly fuck off and stop insulting me. You don't know me, or the thousands of others who've passed through Reed whose only common characteristic is loving learning and working really hard.