[Frameworks] Saul Levine - resources

[Scott MacDonald]

*Here is a message the MassArt president sent out recently:*

Dear MassArt Faculty:

We’re in the news, as many of you have seen and heard. Some of you have
reached out with questions and concerns, so I wanted to send a personal
note to all of you to unequivocally express where I stand on some important
issues.

 We all share the conviction that academic freedom and creative expression
are essential to the identity of MassArt. Academic freedom is your right as
faculty. One of my responsibilities as president is to help you preserve
it. Please know that I will always stand with you in defending academic
freedom in the classroom and in your research and creative activity.

I believe we also understand that with freedom comes responsibility. We
have responsibility to our students and to our staff and faculty
colleagues. Among the most basic of those responsibilities is to respect
the dignity of every person and to engage with one another in a collegial
manner. These values are not incommensurate with one another. Freedom,
creativity, respect, collegiality exist together at MassArt. That’s the
kind of community that welcomed me, and that’s the kind of community I
intend to nurture and preserve.

 As a campus community aspiring to justice and equity, we grapple with many
difficult issues. We will continue to grapple with many difficult issues.
And as the university enterprise attests, answers are often not easy. Your
role as faculty, engaging difficult issues in your classrooms and leading
by example, is the heart of MassArt, and I thank you for your dedication to
students and student learning.

While I am unable to discuss the particulars of personnel matters, let me
clarify that no faculty member has had their academic freedom abridged in a
disciplinary action, nor has anyone been forced to retire over matters of
academic freedom. Any reports to the contrary, in the media or on social
media, are untrue.

Sincerely,

David

David P. Nelson, President

*Reading between the lines, I suspect that what may be at issue is not so
much the films (of course, teaching film seriously is all about disturbance
and always has been and should be), but Saul's tendency to--I'm quoting D.
H. Lawrence--“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion
moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot.” Many of us who have
known Saul for awhile have become accustomed to his saying things hot
(something almost de rigueur for activists a generation ago), but it may be
upsetting now to colleagues (and perhaps students). It may mean differently
now.*

*Scott*

On Mon, Apr 2, 2018 at 9:59 AM, Scott Dorsey <kludge at panix.com> wrote:

>
> Wait a minute.  Students took a class about art that was intended to be
> disturbing and then they got angry because it disturbed them?
>
> This is nothing.  When I was in school, they made me take differential
> equations _in spite of my express complaints that it made me uncomfortable_
> and refused to allow me to graduate until I had taken it.
>
> I thought being disturbed by things was what university was all about?
> --scott
>
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