A professor at Laurentian University has been removed from teaching an introductory psychology class after requesting that students sign a waiver agreeing to his use of vulgar language.

Dr. Michael Persinger was yanked from the class two months after providing students with a “Statement of Understanding” that contains a list of 27 words, from “politician” to the F-word to “Satan” to a homophobic slur.

The “statement of understanding” also includes the warning “This course is rated ‘R’ for coarse language and explicit content.”

Above the words is the sentence: “I understand that if I find any of these words offensive or uncomfortable I should transfer to another section of the course.”

The Laurentian University Faculty Association has filed a grievance against the move, saying that it violates academic freedom.

“This is important stuff,” said association president James Ketchen, a professor in the department of law and justice. “The ability to have frank discussions about important issues is what we’re about.”

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Persinger told the Star he uses some colourful language because it’s important for budding psychologists to feel they can ask any question without being judged. The first portion of the class primarily deals with the effects language has on the mind, and he wanted students to explore how and why words made them feel a certain way.

“I see my role as to teach the young students of today to be critical thinkers, to not be influenced by big words, emotional words, profane words, to make sure they don’t influence their critical thinking or their ability to look at the data and interpret it correctly,” Persinger said.

He also said he uses innuendo and ribald jokes to keep young students’ attention through his three-hour lecture. Persinger won an award from TVO for Canada’s best lecturer in 2007.

Robert Kerr, provost and vice-president of academic affairs at the Sudbury university, said the issue is the waiver put before students.

“It’s not about academic freedom,” Kerr said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s simple that a faculty member cannot ask a student to sign a document or memorandum of understanding as a condition to take his or her class.”

“Admission requirements are set by senate.”

Persinger said he started issuing the statement at the start of the course at the request of the administration ten years ago, and when the administration told him about their concerns in September, they said their problem was with the content of the course and not the statement.

Persinger said he was told his statement violated the university’s standards on respectful conduct.

“I'm perplexed,” he said. “They keep changing the reasons why they suspended me from the course.”

No date has been set for a hearing on the case.

“The association is dealing with a serious matter involving a member who was removed from teaching a section of a first-year course for allegedly including controversial content,” the association said in a prepared statement.

“Our association has filed a grievance as we believe the university has violated our member’s academic freedom. Academic freedom includes freedom of teaching, research, and discussion, no matter how controversial, without reprisal or censorship.

“The discussion of controversial matters is important to help foster independent thinking and expression. We take academic freedom very seriously and will be doing all we can to defend our members’ rights.”

Ketchen said Persinger has provided the waiver about language that might be used in class for at least a decade, and he’s not sure why it has become an issue now.

“That is actually a complete mystery to me,” Ketchen said. “We don’t know where this complaint originated.”

Ketchen said students have the option of taking a different introductory psychology class if they find Persinger’s class offensive.

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“He just lets them know to give them a heads-up,” Ketchen said. “I don’t think a professor even needs to do that.

Persinger’s handout for students offers “Sample Examination Items,” including one question that describes an anatomy class gathered around the cadaver of a boy. The anatomy professor then instructs the students one at a time to insert a digit into the cadaver’s rectum as part of a lesson on the importance of observation.

“That’s an old joke,” Ketchen said. “I heard that a long time ago. I don’t get the offence.”

Another question tests the students’ understanding of behavioral learning with a story of how a person responds the same way each time someone smashes his finger, by shouting a string of profanities.

Persinger also provided his students with a list of words that might used during the course, along with this waiver to sign:

“I understand that if I find any of these words offensive or uncomfortable I should transfer to another section or course.

The words ranged from common curses to indelicate-sounding but harmless phenomena. Here are some of the words included in his original course contract:

fallacious

fibroblasts

f***

Punta

pusillanimous

prick

sh**face

solipsism

sordid

With files from Robin Levinson King

Course agreement View document on Scribd