{"id":10056,"date":"2014-10-11T18:40:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-12T02:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/?p=10056"},"modified":"2014-10-11T19:18:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-12T03:18:51","slug":"capilanouniversity-censorship-of-georgerammell-case-progresses-caut-bced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/workplace\/2014\/10\/capilanouniversity-censorship-of-georgerammell-case-progresses-caut-bced\/","title":{"rendered":"#CapilanoUniversity censorship of #GeorgeRammell case progresses #caut #bced"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"dismantled_sculpture\"<\/a>

George Rammell with the remnants of Blathering On in Krisendom, which Capilano university officials confiscated and dismantled.<\/p><\/div>\n

Elizabeth Redden, Inside Higher Ed<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>October 8, 2014– It took 53 days for George Rammell to get back a sculpture he\u2019d made caricaturing his university’s president and, when officials at British Columbia\u2019s Capilano University finally returned it to him, it was in pieces.<\/p>\n

“They gave it back to me all smashed up,\u201d said Rammell, a former instructor at Capilano whose sculpture was\u00a0seized from the studio arts building last spring<\/a>\u00a0by university officials on the grounds that it constituted \u201charassment\u201d of Capilano President Kris Bulcroft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey claim they had to destroy it in order to move it, which is absolutely ridiculous. I\u2019ve moved it myself.”<\/p>\n

The original sculpture, titled\u00a0Blathering On in Krisendom<\/em>, depicted the president and her poodle as ventriloquist dolls draped in an American flag and was conceived, as Rammell explained it, as an \u201canti-monument\u201d to the president in protest of her role in carrying out program cuts. Bulcroft oversaw\u00a0the elimination of several programs<\/a>, including the studio arts program in which Rammell taught, in a process that was later\u00a0deemed by British Columbia\u2019s Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0to be contrary to the province\u2019s University Act in that Capilano’s Senate was not consulted.<\/p>\n

Rammell described the original sculpture as an example of constitutionally protected caricature, but Capilano\u2019s former board chair, Jane Shackell, directed that it be confiscated from university property because it was,\u00a0she said<\/a>, being \u201cused in a manner amounting to workplace harassment of an individual employee, intended to belittle and humiliate the president.\u201d<\/p>\n

In order to reclaim his artwork,\u00a0Rammell said, he signed an agreement that stated that he would be permitted to work on the piece in the studio arts building until his employment at the university ended on July 31. After that time, he would remove the sculpture from campus and would not bring it back. Rammell said the agreement also stipulated that he would not display any photographs of the sculpture on campus until five years after the president\u2019s retirement. (Rammell declined to share the text of the agreement he signed but described its contents to\u00a0Inside Higher Ed<\/em>. Capilano officials declined to comment on the specific terms of the grievance agreement, which a university spokeswoman described as related to a personnel matter and thus confidential.)<\/p>\n

In compensation for the damages to the sculpture, Rammell said, he received the equivalent of four days\u2019 teaching wages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn retrospect I should never have signed the stupid thing; I could have finished the sculpture without getting the heap back,\u201d said Rammell.<\/p>\n

Finish the sculpture he has. The new sculpture, made up of pieces of the original as well as newly created components, was unveiled last week in an event at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, in Vancouver. The\u00a0piece has two faces, or fronts: a newly sculpted depiction of the president holding a mace backs up against the reassembled components of the original sculpture. Among the new elements of the sculpture, Rammell said a mace is intended to signify the trust placed in the university president, and a pen is intended to represent Bulcroft\u2019s\u00a0“unilateral” signing authority in eliminating the studio arts and other Capilano programs. The new piece is entitled\u00a0Margaux and the Monarch<\/em>, Margaux being the name of Bulcroft\u2019s dog.<\/p>\n

As for the American flag, Bulcroft\u00a0previously worked at Western Washington University.\u00a0Rammell said that while he has nothing against international hires, he did object to Bulcroft’s\u00a0seeming disregard for a Canadian law, specifically the University Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole piece is about academic freedom and everybody seems to be under threat,\u201d Rammell said.<\/p>\n

Bulcroft declined an interview through a Capilano spokeswoman, Borjana\u00a0Slipicevic. A statement emailed by Slipicevic\u00a0that repeatedly misspelled Rammell’s name said that “Capilano University is aware of Mr. Rammel\u2019s\u00a0current actions. The university is committed to a safe and respectful workplace for all faculty and staff; the decision to remove Mr. Rammel\u2019s sculpture from campus was made in this vein. Capilano University and Mr. Rammel\u2019s union negotiated a mutually acceptable settlement that resulted in giving the sculpture to Mr. Rammell; thus Capilano University considers this matter closed.”<\/p>\n

As for the condition of the sculpture\u00a0upon its return, the university’s statement said, “The effigy was dismantled to facilitate its removal; Mr. Rammel was advised that this was the case.”<\/p>\n

Read More: Inside Higher Ed<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n