.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}
Visit Freedom's Zone Donate To Project Valour

Sunday, April 23, 2006

Penn State Gets Into The Action

If we don't stop this, we're going to become a nation of Euro-style twits.

Penn State's College of Visual Arts cancelled a scheduled art exhibition because it didn't like the content. The exhibit was focused on Palestinian terrorism, and it was (gasp) done by a Jewish student. Links:
PSU newspaper article:
Three days before his 10-piece exhibit -- Portraits of Terror -- was scheduled to open at the Patterson Building, Stulman (senior-painting and anthropology) received an e-mail message from the School of Visual Arts that said his exhibit on images of terrorism "did not promote cultural diversity" or "opportunities for democratic dialogue" and the display would be cancelled.
...
Charles Garoian, professor and director of the School of Visual Arts, said Stulman's controversial images did not mesh with the university's educational mission.

The decision to cancel the exhibit came after reviewing Penn State's Policy AD42: Statement on Nondiscrimination and Harassment and Penn State's Zero Tolerance Policy for Hate, he wrote.

AIEEEEAAIIEEEE. Penn State's Zero Tolerance Policy for Hate? Is commenting on terrorism really hate? According to the article, earlier several posters publicizing the exhibit had been marked up. The graffiti included a swastika. Pretty close to the Oslo march, aren't we? For those who don't know, Jews who were identifiable as Jews were kept out of a march set up to commemorate the anniverisary of Kristallnacht. The only thing I could find about Zero Tolerance for Hate at Penn State (it rhymes!) was this page, which lists university police AD29 under that heading:
Intolerance refers to an attitude, feeling or belief in furtherance of which an individual acts to intimidate, threaten or show contempt for other individuals or groups based on characteristics such as age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, political belief, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status.

Acts of intolerance will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University.
It sounds like you can't discuss much at Penn State, doesn't it?

Volokh posted twice. The university policies are unconstitutional on their face, as Volokh notes.

The depth of the damage can be seen in this quote from the article. The student is claiming harassment now, because someone defaced the posters advertising his cancelled exhibit:
Stulman said advertisements for the event were defaced in the Patterson and School of Visual Arts buildings, one of which had a large swastika on it.

Stulman, who is Jewish, said he felt threatened and abused by the Nazi symbol and is concerned for his artwork and his personal well-being.
We're gonna go insane if we keep this up. Everyone's going to be reeling around announcing that they fear for their lives.

Kill the speechcodes, I say!


Comments:
It's quite amazing that a commentary on terrorism is rebuked under a "Zero Tolerance Policy for Hate". Post-modern, do you think?
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?