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Miami U. officials respond to complaints surrounding controversial art display

Megan E. Weiland

While nothing has been decided in the case of the three art students and their class project involving seven noose-like ropes and a tire swing that appeared on campus Oct. 30, Miami University has met with concerned students and launched a fact-finding inquiry into the situation.

"We have been asked to make a movement to seek and label the facts of the case," said Matthew Boaz, director of the Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity. "Once the facts are gathered, I will put them together and present them to the university president."

Boaz added that this is not an investigation, so it will be up to President David Hodge to decide how to proceed once he has the facts.

"There is no specific deadline since I am relying on multiple people to provide information," Boaz said. "But this is my highest priority right now."

Susan Vaughn, director of the Office of Ethics and Student Conflict Resolution, said they cannot disclose whether or not the students involved are being charged under the Student Code of Conduct. Miami University Police Lieutenant Andrew Powers said this is a university issue now.

"We have not filed charges in that case and are not contemplating filing any at this time," Powers said. "That is the extent of our involvement."

Dean of Fine Arts James Lentini said his own investigation into the facts surrounding the event is still underway.

"The important thing to remember is that this was a class critique, not an art exhibit," he said. "No one in the art department found it offensive as a class project, but students who didn't realize what it was understandably were upset and called the police."

Lentini stressed his belief that they are not here to censor art or restrict First Amendment rights.

There is a precedent for cases involving possibly harmful symbols: In 1992, the United States Supreme Court saw the case R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, where a juvenile and a few others taped chair legs together to make a cross, placed it inside the fenced-in front yard of an African American family and lit it on fire. St. Paul, Minn. prosecuted him for disorderly conduct under a statute that said whoever places on public or private property a symbol, object, appellation, characterization or graffiti, including but not limited to a burning cross or Nazi swastika, which one knows or has reasonably grounds to know arouses anger, harm or resentment in others on the basis of color, creed, religion or gender commits disorderly conduct and shall be guilty of misdemeanor.

The Supreme Court however, overturned this calling the statute unconstitutional because it prevents speech based on the content of the speech. The court concluded that displays containing abusive incentive, no matter how vicious, are allowed unless they fall under a specified disfavored topic such as "fighting words."

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"We still feel the approval process we have in place is effective given that this doesn't happen often," Lentini said. "This is a point of instruction that symbols with negative connotations need to be looked at from the standpoint of whether or not the intended meaning will be obliterated by common perception."

Lentini said the art exhibit could have used some context but given that this was only a project and not a display, it's a different situation.

"We obviously need to fine tune the details," he said. "It's unfortunate that this had to happen and we all have to take some responsibility. The intent was not to injure our colleagues on campus."

Nothing has been decided about the class instructor as of yet, but Lentini said he is still looking into the situation.

Lentini will be appearing on a WMUB forum at 9 a.m. Friday to talk about the incident with a representative from the ACLU.

Presidential meeting

The President's Executive Committee met with concerned students Wednesday to further discuss the implications of the art project.

The meeting was organized by Shaneqa Harper, president of the Miami chapter of NAACP; Jasmine Dixon, vice president and treasurer of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority; and Denise Mack, president of the Black Student Action Association.

"After the nooses incident, we really wanted to prevent any reactionary measures being taken because we all truly believe that effective change takes time," Dixon said via e-mail. "Not only does it take time, but appropriate assessment tools need to be put into place to determine how effective our strategies are."

Dixon said they called the meeting with President Hodge and several of his committee members in order to give certain faculty, staff and students a chance to ask questions and receive answers.

"At some points, answers weren't presented adequately, or we felt that some other avenues could be more effective than what is currently happening on campus," Dixon said. "This includes increasing the retention rate of multicultural faculty and students on campus, determine whether or not the hiring firm Miami uses to select its hiring pool of applicants is biased anyway, and how the firm is assessed for fair selection practices, and to introduce a proposal to have diversity training as a requirement for faculty, staff, and students."

President Hodge, Vice President of Student Affairs Richard Nault, Interim Associate Vice President of Institutional Diversity Sally Lloyd, Interim Senior Administrative Director of Diversity Affairs Juanita Tate, Associate Vice President for University Communication Dionn Tron and University Provost Jeffrey Herbst were all invited to the meeting as well as several other staff, faculty and students.

"We went to the meeting because the students invited us," Tron said. "It was obvious that they put a huge amount of work into this. We listened and we answered their questions."

Tron said the invitation was offered after Hodge met with them Oct. 31, the day after the project was erected and several proposals were offered to the administration.

"We concluded that faculty need diversity training as a requirement because change on this campus is going to have to start from the top and work its way down," Dixon said. "We also concluded that having the IDS (Interdisciplinary Studies) honors class on whiteness and white identity, along with the IDS 151 class on multi-cultural awareness, be made requirements for students, just as many Miami Plan courses are required for graduation."

Dixon explained their idea for combing the two classes under a title similar to "Cultural Competency" stems from the idea that "white" students are always learning about other cultures and not so much their own.

"The term 'white' is an extremely broad term, a cultural construct, and until we deconstruct what it is to be 'white' and give white students the opportunity to learn about themselves, then there will continue to be an adverse reaction to implementing a requirement to learn about others," Dixon said.

The IDS class is currently being taught by professors from all different departments and covers a range of cultures, including gay and lesbian communities and gender relations, according to Dixon. She added that this is a good argument for making the class a requirement because students may be more willing to take it if it is taught by a professor in their major.

"While President Hodge doesn't agree with making these classes requirements, we feel that with the Miami Plan getting an overhaul currently, now would be a good time," Dixon said. "We also feel that it will prevent people from saying "I didn't know," because they are being taught. ... To nearly graduate any student, these students involved in the noose incident specifically, who can honestly say, 'I didn't know,' should be inexcusable, and an embarrassment to the education that Miami provides."

Dixon said they also touched on why counseling services were not offered for those who felt affected by the noose-like ropes and why exit interviews are not formally given to students, staff and facu lty leaving Miami. She said this would provide a valuable opportunity for Miami to assess its climate and make changes if necessary.

Incorporating diversity

"I thought it was extremely constructive," Herbst said. "There were important issues raised and we don't have all the answers to these conflicts but we're working to get there."

Herbst added that it is currently a nationwide discussion about incorporating more diversity into the curriculum.

"The approach we've taken is to broaden our course offerings and provide opportunities for faculty and students to have more discussions on these topics," he said. "We're in discussion right now about the Global Miami Plan and I view that as one important aspect of including diversity."

Dixon said she hopes the university makes an effort to listen to the thoughts and opinions of their students.

"We also found it interesting how Provost Jeff Herbst said that Miami students do not feel as if 'diversity is being crammed down their throats,'" Dixon said. "To this I emphasized the need for there to be better connections between administration and students because all the students who were present for this meeting agreed that a lot of white students don't see the importance in multi-culturalism, and say that their experience at college is not about diversity, but about getting a good job."

Tronn said the students asked to meet the university members again sometime in March and continue the conversations as some of the questions the students had regarding the incident with the art project couldn't be answered at this time.

Dixon agreed that certain things about the explanation didn't sound right to her.

"This group of students didn't call it an 'art display' or call for the violation of freedom of speech until they realized they were in hot water," Dixon said. "...This is not a true violation of (the) freedom of speech argument. This is a group of kids who knew they were going to be held accountable. This is why ... one of the students said 'oh my God' as soon as Susan Mosley-Howard arrived, and who said he knew nothing about what a noose meant or Jena 6 only to admit five minutes later that he had 'lied' because he 'was scared.'"

Dixon was the student who reported the art project to the Miami University Police Department (MUPD).

Tron said they were impressed with the thoughts articulated and they promised the students more answers as they came in.

"We want to have a whole campus session as soon as possible," Herbst said. "It will cover a wide constellation of issues-some specific instances with the art project but also a campus-wide discussion about diversity."


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