Bellevue Community College: Professor Punished for "Racially Insensitive" Exam Question

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Bellevue Community College: Professor Punished for "Racially Insensitive" Exam Question

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Case Overview

FIRE Victory closed

Bellevue Community College (BCC) dropped its proposed punishment of Professor Peter Ratener, who composed a math exam problem that featured a woman named Condoleezza dropping a watermelon off the roof of a federal building. Ratener wrote the problem in 2004, but came under intense scrutiny after the exam question was made public in March, 2006. For seven months, FIREopposed BCC's attempt to suspend Ratener for a week without pay before BCC finally announced that it would not suspend Ratener.

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