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Reed College has pulled the plug on classes called "Put That In Your Pipe and Smoke It" and "Adroit Anticipation of Awesome Altered Adventures 201."
The two classes are part of a program called Paideia—free, non-credit "enrichment" courses on any topic taught by Reed students, staff and alumni held the week before spring semester.
However, as reported yesterday by student newspaper The Quest, the college announced that those two classes were being canceled, authorized by President John Kroger.
Another class, "Kombucha and Other Fermentation Basics," had its basic alcohol fermentation portion pulled, due to fears that students under 21 would be participating. A cigarette rolling class was altered to require students to wait until the end of class to smoke their tobacco.
Reed spokesman Kevin Myers says the changes were made after concerned staff brought the Paideia classes to Kroger.
"This wasn't him going through the Paideia schedule and looking for things to eliminate," Myers says.
Reed's storied and troubled history with drugs were front and center when Kroger took control of the private college last summer. State and federal officials in 2010 told previous President Colin Driver to "shut down illegal drug use and distribution at Reed College."
Myers says the cancellation of the classes, which would have began Jan. 18, are a part of that effort.
Still, the move was greeted with hostility by some students.
"[This] event is a clear breach of honorable student-administrative
relations and a portentous glimpse of John Kroger's perspective on
student body autonomy," student Austin Weisgrau told The Quest.
WWeek 2015