April 5, 2004
Elisa Stephens, President
Academy Of Art University
79 New Montgomery Street
San Francisco, CA. 94105
Fax: (415)274-8665
Dear President Stephens:
We are writing on behalf of the 2,700 members of PEN American Center to express our shock over reports that an Academy of Art University student has been expelled and writing instructor Jan Richman has been dismissed in connection with writings the student produced for a creative writing class, and to protest the reported imposition of guidelines for student work and campus speakers.
We condemn outright the summary expulsion of a student for work presented in a creative writing workshop, without regard to questions of the possible artistic merit of the work presented. Writing workshops serve as safe spaces for student writers to experiment, and often to fail; they are also the places where student writers must confront the direct questions and criticisms of their peers and mentors when their efforts fall short or offend. We believe that an institution that offers creative writing workshops has a responsibility to protect that creative space and the creative freedom of its student writers, and it has a responsibility to meet the challenges posed by controversial work openly and in the context of a workshop and the university community. The Academy of Art University administration appears to have done neither. Instead, by acting without engaging the Academy of Art University community in critical discussions of literary merit, violence and culture, artistic freedom, or any of the profound questions that controversial or disturbing work raises, the
administration abdicated its responsibility to educate in favor of suppression of speech and punishment.
We likewise condemn the university's refusal to extend Ms. Richman's employment. Press reports of the Academy's actions against the student and Ms. Richman make clear that Ms. Richman herself sought to promote a critical discussion both about the student work in question and about violence and violent imagery in literature. We understand she alerted her superior in the department and, with his guidance, prepared a class that would have specifically addressed questions of literary merit and appropriateness. The apparent arbitrariness of her subsequent treatment raises serious questions of process, and seems likely to cast a pall over the faculty as a whole.
Finally, we are deeply troubled to learn that the Academy may be formulating guidelines for student work, guest speakers and materials guidelines. We fear that without first reviewing and correcting the errors in process and decision-making in the present cases, and without enlisting the involvement and incorporating the viewpoints of the entire faculty, any guidelines will be formulated in part as a post facto justification for the Academy's actions. But more than that, we are disturbed by the very notion that an arts university would aim to promulgate standards that could include disciplinary action against students or faculty for exercising creative freedom and their First Amendment rights.
Sincerely,
Salman Rushdie
President, PEN American Center
Hannah Pakula
Chair, Freedom to Write Committee
Cc:
Eileen Everett, Acting Director, Liberal Arts Dept.
Tom Molanphy, English Coordinator
Sue Rowley, Executive Vice President