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FIRE; As the spring semester begins today at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, a storm of controversy is brewing amid allegations the school unjustly censored a school play, fired the popular professor who wrote it, and is now demanding silence from students and faculty critical of the administration.
The firing of professor David Hillman from Saint Mary’s is very concerning. The school’s claims of sexual harassment charges seem too tied-up in what appears to be the actual reason for Hillman’s firing: his involvement with the production of Medea. Hillman was working two jobs and has been commended for his work by students and other professors, which demonstrates that he was a hard-working community member. It is a shame to see him ousted from the school so swiftly, and I wonder where this situation will end up – will he be reinstated? Will he be offered a job at a competing university and move on? It is ridiculous that Saint Mary’s would fire Hillman for his translation of the play. As the article describes, it is foolish for the university to ban any sexual content one may object to, especially with respect to the classics which have many sexual elements. Unless Hillman actually did sexually harass students, which seems doubtful and unsupported by evidence, his firing is ridiculous. He was terminated because a university can’t handle some phallic symbols? Really? Grow up. The implications of Hillman’s firing are serious. As he explains, accusations of sexual harassment seriously impair his future career, especially anything in education.
This sounds like an absolute mess. It frustrates me to no end when schools try and invest in a theatre program for their students, yet have no clue what they're getting themselves into. By nature, theatre has always gravitated towards subjects that put the audience in a place of discomfort, or challenges them in some way. This obviously isn't true of all theatre, however, a great chunk of the theatrical canon in all of history has been composed in a way that would just simply not fit into a school that believes that they need to censor the material that they present to their students. Obviously, this has a lot to do with old ideas and concerned parents who think they know what is best (which they believe to be just simply shielding their child from ever experiencing the reality that surrounds them), however I just don't think it's fair for material to be censored like this ESPECIALLY when it derives directly from a very important piece of history.
What I really don't understand is why no one looked at the translated script or the props or anything before they put on the play. Because it seems to me, they put on the whole production because they have the picture before it got censored by the school. How could it have gotten that far in the process without anyone noticing? And why was the translator fired and not the director? She was the one that approved the script. All the professor was doing was his job in translation. This is really concerning especially since the charges were allegations of sexual harassment, which is a permanent mark on a job record that will be there whether the allegations were true or not. And Hillman simply cannot afford it. What’s worse is how much dedication he put into the school- he was a janitor and still managed to handle his over-enrolled classes that drew so many people in because of his passion for teaching. There is a line in the article that says “Hillman’s passion for his work may have cost him his job,” which is such a backward thing to hear. People are always being told to be more passionate about their work, to work harder and longer to get the best results. And to have that backfire so violently is awful.
To me, the whole point of educational theatre is to explore and openly portray/discuss the things (controversial issues, topics that raise discomfort, etc) that huge theatre companies won't. I also don't see why Hillman was the only one punished for the production. It's very troubling and suspicious to see that the school is demanding silence from students and faculty "critical of the administration" - if the school did fire Hillman because of the reason they claimed (sexual harassment), then why are they demanding silence from the students and faculty regarding this incident? I think the way the university handled this situation is extremely immature, and repressing an issue through censorship is the worst thing an educational institution can do. Hopefully there will be progress made and more followups on this in the near future.
I don’t understand the point in having a theatre program if it’s going to be censored. I really don’t. I’m firmly under the belief that as long as the actors are completely comfortable and the audience has been thoroughly warned about the piece, than anything is fair game. College campus or not, we are talking about willing, consenting adults who have the right to decide what they are or aren’t comfortable doing. I know that every college theatre program censors their performances one way or another, even CMU, but I don’t think it’s right. If people have started working on a show than no matter what turns it takes, it should be given the chance to go on. Saint Mary’s University should feel ashamed for closing down a production that people have worked so hard on. As for the professor that terminated, I’m a little more weary. I don’t take sexual assault accusations lightly, and I will patiently await the results of a complete investigation before stating my opinion. But even if the professor is fired for a legitimate reason, that’s no reason to cancel a show.
5 comments:
The firing of professor David Hillman from Saint Mary’s is very concerning. The school’s claims of sexual harassment charges seem too tied-up in what appears to be the actual reason for Hillman’s firing: his involvement with the production of Medea. Hillman was working two jobs and has been commended for his work by students and other professors, which demonstrates that he was a hard-working community member. It is a shame to see him ousted from the school so swiftly, and I wonder where this situation will end up – will he be reinstated? Will he be offered a job at a competing university and move on? It is ridiculous that Saint Mary’s would fire Hillman for his translation of the play. As the article describes, it is foolish for the university to ban any sexual content one may object to, especially with respect to the classics which have many sexual elements. Unless Hillman actually did sexually harass students, which seems doubtful and unsupported by evidence, his firing is ridiculous. He was terminated because a university can’t handle some phallic symbols? Really? Grow up. The implications of Hillman’s firing are serious. As he explains, accusations of sexual harassment seriously impair his future career, especially anything in education.
This sounds like an absolute mess. It frustrates me to no end when schools try and invest in a theatre program for their students, yet have no clue what they're getting themselves into. By nature, theatre has always gravitated towards subjects that put the audience in a place of discomfort, or challenges them in some way. This obviously isn't true of all theatre, however, a great chunk of the theatrical canon in all of history has been composed in a way that would just simply not fit into a school that believes that they need to censor the material that they present to their students. Obviously, this has a lot to do with old ideas and concerned parents who think they know what is best (which they believe to be just simply shielding their child from ever experiencing the reality that surrounds them), however I just don't think it's fair for material to be censored like this ESPECIALLY when it derives directly from a very important piece of history.
What I really don't understand is why no one looked at the translated script or the props or anything before they put on the play. Because it seems to me, they put on the whole production because they have the picture before it got censored by the school. How could it have gotten that far in the process without anyone noticing? And why was the translator fired and not the director? She was the one that approved the script. All the professor was doing was his job in translation. This is really concerning especially since the charges were allegations of sexual harassment, which is a permanent mark on a job record that will be there whether the allegations were true or not. And Hillman simply cannot afford it. What’s worse is how much dedication he put into the school- he was a janitor and still managed to handle his over-enrolled classes that drew so many people in because of his passion for teaching.
There is a line in the article that says “Hillman’s passion for his work may have cost him his job,” which is such a backward thing to hear. People are always being told to be more passionate about their work, to work harder and longer to get the best results. And to have that backfire so violently is awful.
To me, the whole point of educational theatre is to explore and openly portray/discuss the things (controversial issues, topics that raise discomfort, etc) that huge theatre companies won't. I also don't see why Hillman was the only one punished for the production. It's very troubling and suspicious to see that the school is demanding silence from students and faculty "critical of the administration" - if the school did fire Hillman because of the reason they claimed (sexual harassment), then why are they demanding silence from the students and faculty regarding this incident? I think the way the university handled this situation is extremely immature, and repressing an issue through censorship is the worst thing an educational institution can do. Hopefully there will be progress made and more followups on this in the near future.
I don’t understand the point in having a theatre program if it’s going to be censored. I really don’t. I’m firmly under the belief that as long as the actors are completely comfortable and the audience has been thoroughly warned about the piece, than anything is fair game. College campus or not, we are talking about willing, consenting adults who have the right to decide what they are or aren’t comfortable doing. I know that every college theatre program censors their performances one way or another, even CMU, but I don’t think it’s right. If people have started working on a show than no matter what turns it takes, it should be given the chance to go on. Saint Mary’s University should feel ashamed for closing down a production that people have worked so hard on. As for the professor that terminated, I’m a little more weary. I don’t take sexual assault accusations lightly, and I will patiently await the results of a complete investigation before stating my opinion. But even if the professor is fired for a legitimate reason, that’s no reason to cancel a show.
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