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CENSORSHOP AT PENN STATE

By Michelle Malkin  •  April 23, 2006 08:15 PM

Another unbelievable, moonbatty story from academia. David Bernstein at The Volokh Conspiracy, linking to the Penn State Collegian, spotlights an anti-terrorism art exhibit being canceled at Penn State University:

For Penn State student Josh Stulman, years of hard work ended in disappointment yesterday when the university cancelled his upcoming art exhibit for violation of Penn State’s policies on nondiscrimination, harassment and hate.

Three days before his 10-piece exhibit — Portraits of Terror — was scheduled to open at the Patterson Building, Stulman (senior-painting and anthropology) received an e-mail message from the School of Visual Arts that said his exhibit on images of terrorism “did not promote cultural diversity” or “opportunities for democratic dialogue” and the display would be cancelled.

The exhibit, Stulman said, which is based mainly on the conflict in Palestinian territories, raises questions concerning the destruction of Jewish religious shrines, anti-Semitic propaganda and cartoons in Palestinian newspapers, the disregard for rules of engagement and treatment of prisoners, and the indoctrination of youth into terrorist acts.

“I’m being censored and the reason for censoring me doesn’t make sense,” Stulman said.

Charles Garoian, professor and director of the School of Visual Arts, said Stulman’s controversial images did not mesh with the university’s educational mission.

The decision to cancel the exhibit came after reviewing Penn State’s Policy AD42 [the policy, which, in my educated opinion, is clearly unconstutionally overbroad even if it actually applies to Stulman's exhibit, can be found here]: Statement on Nondiscrimination and Harassment and Penn State’s Zero Tolerance Policy for Hate, he wrote.

….

[Stulman] said he was shocked at the university’s decision to cancel the exhibit and that he has tried to meet with Garoian on numerous occasions to discuss his artwork.

“It’s not about hate. I don’t hate Muslims. This is not about Islam,” Stulman said. “This is about terrorism impacting the Palestinian way of life and Israel way of life.

Bernstein features one of the banned art pieces:

terrorart.jpg

And Bernstein follows up with an amazing e-mail exchange with a Penn State spokesman, who explains that the art student “may exhibit his class work in the space provided for class projects — as long as he has no sponsor.” The student’s art was sponsored by the campus Hillel chapter for $75-$100.

Bernstein concludes:

So we have two possibilities here: (1) Penn State’s art faculty has a rule against displaying any student work that has any sponsorship, including sponsorship of a student organization such as Hillel [near as I can tell, Penn State Hillel is an official PSU club, though I'm not 100% sure]. However, this rule is only applied when the faculty doesn’t like the message the art is sending or (2) there is no such rule, or at least it wouldn’t apply to a noncommercial, student organization such as Hillel, but pretending there is such a rule is a convenient excuse for what would otherwise look like pure heavy-handed enforcement of political correctness.

Needless to say, neither option reflects well on Penn State.

Oh, and wait ’til you read about the anti-censorship hypocrisy from the professor leading the charge against the student’s art.

Classic.

LGF has more, and a commenter tracking the art exhibit ban reports that “the decision to shut it down may be reversed.”

***

Oh, geez. Look what they do find acceptable at PSU.

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