Students revolt over a popular professor's firing. Will Nashville's art scene pay the price?

From Nashville Scene:

At 10:30, about 15 twenty-somethings calmly occupied the room where David Hinton was scheduled to teach his "Art, Politics and Society" class. The goal wasn't to force racial integration or end the war but to get some answers from Hinton, dean of Watkins College of Art and Design, about why one of their favorite professors won't be coming back next year.

Watkins students and professors learned of Glispin's involuntary departure as word spread around the 300-student college. The fired professor wasn't talking to many people about it, and when students inquired in January, Hinton said that reports of Glispin's termination were only rumors. In private, though, the dean had already signed an initial contract with Glispin's replacement.

But Terry Glispin's termination is about much more than messy personnel issues at a local college, because it's set against the backdrop of a controversial work of video art that garnered Watkins unwanted national attention last October. ... Whatever ultimately happens to Watkins' fine arts program will undoubtedly reverberate throughout the city's art community. News of Glispin's impending departure already has.

Students worry aloud about Watkins' leadership under Brooks if he continues to give Hinton free reign over the school's academic program. They say that Brooks' familiarity with curriculum and instruction is limited to what Hinton tells him. While the president may be good-natured and respectful of his surrogate's authority, several students say he seems passive and unwilling or unable to supervise Hinton appropriately. "I told Dean Hinton there would be hell to pay for this decision [to fire Glispin]," students recall Brooks saying during a Friday morning meeting. Though he seems to care about students' concerns, Brooks has done nothing so far to ameliorate them.

The professors who spoke to the Scene say Glispin's firing sends a chilling signal to other teachers. Since there's no tenure system at the school, there's no protection from arbitrary termination. "If Hinton decides that he doesn't like the direction of your work, you're gone," says one professor.

This is the set up as to what is going on in our school right now. A very important man in the school's staff is about to be fired. The dean has come revealed himself as a liar and a dick to all those he doesn't find suitable to teach by his academic standards. Furthermore, several students, including myself, do not feel this is in the best interest of the school to get rid of such a great teacher and person. I could say how great Terry is, but I can't. I am just now having his class, and from the first few weeks I've had with him so far, I like him. He is helping me produce what I want to produce in art. He is bringing back the fun into creating that I lost because other teachers were so hell-bent on getting me to draw with the skill of the European masters!

"It's great that you can draw, but what the hell are you drawing, and why?" says Iwonka Waskowski, a five-year Watkins student, of the department's apparent guiding philosophy.

I cannot help but agree with this statement. There are several sketches in my older books that are nothing but doodles. Very detailed doodles, but still doodles. Nothing behind them as far as meaning. Just really nicely drawn characters that could be in a cartoon of some sort. Scattered throughout the books, however, are various drawings I've done during fits of depression. I used this as an escape and to tell someone that wouldn't listen about how bad I really felt when words couldn't. I was drawing for content and not for skill, and those drawings are the best ones I've ever done so far in my life.

The article, at this point, goes on to explain several things such as how some students feel about a new censorship policy. In fact, Jason is worried that his graduating show, a solo gallery promised by the Fine Arts department, would be cancelled because of how much it is loaded with homosexual content. Not the bad kind, mind you, but the taste of this city pretty much spells out what is going to happen if nothing else gets done to prevent this. And the kicker for me is that I want to see his show simply because I am a fan of what I have seen him produce on large scale canvas. Yes, that crush is still there, but I won't get into that... at least in this post.

The article, however, lost me when it mentioned things about how the school really isn't in financial troubles of any kind. This made me feel like they were alienating us and saying this issue wasn't important. We are getting new dorms, there's a new sign that will be put up outside to replace the theatre marquee of the building, etc. While brief, it did feel like they were saying that the firing of Terry wasn't important. Money is the more important thing for the school, not the education of their students or teaching them to become great gallery artists, great graphic designers, great interior designers, great film makers, or great photographers.

And that's the sad thing. Since I came to Watkins, I've noticed that this school id different in so many levels. The most notable one that I enjoy is that I can call all my teachers by their first name. I was talking to another student that said this doesn't happen in other schools. He transferred here because of how much the teachers cared about their student's growth. In fact, some care so much it borders on insane! How so? There are some teachers in the staff that will stay on extra hours to help you even thought they do not get any more money than they already do. Terry, for example, was called by another student I was talking to who was doing a project that didn't work at around 22:30! And he actually picked up the phone that late at night and helped him through the project! Tell me what professor does that?

The article mentions the controversy from last October, but only as a reference point. It makes it clear that this event was caused from our first, and hopefully not last, controversy in the field of art. What it doesn't mention is that this has all happened before.

The World Civilization when I joined was the best teacher for that class you could get. I was told to sign up for his class whenever I was going to take it. However, he had a falling out of sorts with the dean and didn't come back. Kevin, my World Myth and now Philosophy teacher, is in that same boat. He doesn't like the dean and how he uses the power of his position. In fact, he nearly quit after last semester because he couldn't stand the guy! Kevin is an interesting teacher that is willing to get on subject tangents that are totally irrelevant to the class sometimes. He made the stories of other religions interesting to me! He's making the idea that I really don't have a head from a philosophical view interesting to me! You don't get rid of teachers that actually get you excited about their class before it starts like Kevin or Terry. Why get rid of a bad thing?

The President of the school, I have to say, I feel bad for. Back when The Tennessean was covering our stories before they turned on us and made the conservatives in the city hate us for about a week, President Brooks came off to me as a politician of sorts. He kept giving out answers that felt like they could be coming out of Senator Frist's mouth. This time around, I don't feel that way. In fact, I pity him.

Here is a guy that is suppose to be the person in charge of the school. (Yes, there is someone more powerful than the dean in the school. Remember that everyone has a boss in the world.) And he is not doing his job. He is not putting the dean in check by saying that he is out of line for firing someone who is a good teacher simply because he doesn't like them as a person. That's not the kind of thing you do when you are in that powerful of a position. Imagine what the world would be like if our country's President bombed everyone he didn't like. Oh wait...

I'll close this news update with this last quote from the article.

"They really had a chance to step up and make national positive attention for themselves," says Erin Hewgley, who works in the school's fine arts department. "They could say, 'Look, this is a school that stands up for its students' freedom of expression.' Who wants to go to a school that refuses to stand up for its students and censors their work?"

And who will want to teach there either? Two professors separately described a spirit of common endeavor that existed at Watkins for the past few years, one that motivated them to work long hours for little pay. "We all felt like we were part of building something that was important, something that would have an impact," one says. "We thought that we were building something good," says the other, in fearful symmetry. "We don't have that team feeling anymore."

This is pretty much being echoed throughout the school for the past few days. I'm seeing less and less of the teachers in the halls talking to students the more this thing between Terry and the dean drags on. And if Terry leaves, several students will be leaving the school as well. Myself included.