Two Tenured Professors Resign From UCLA

[DaveyD]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050122/ap_on_re_us/professors_resign_1

Two Tenured Professors Resign From UCLA

Sat Jan 22,12:35 PM ET




LOS ANGELES - Two tenured art professors have resigned from the University of California, Los Angeles, because the school refused to suspend a graduate student who may have used a gun during a classroom performance art piece.



Chris Burden and Nancy Rubins, internationally known artists who taught at UCLA for more than two decades, filed their retirement papers Dec. 20.



"They feel this was sort of domestic terrorism. There should have been more outrage and a firmer response," said Sarah Watson, a director at a Beverly Hills gallery that represents the couple.



In the brief performance on Nov. 29, the student appeared to point a loaded handgun at his head and pull the trigger, a student and law enforcement officials told the Los Angeles Times.



The weapon didn't fire, but after the student left the room a noise that sounded like a gunshot was heard outside.



Police said no one was hurt and it wasn't known if the firearm was real. Prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence for charges, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.



The student was allowed to continue his studies after the dean's office decided that suspension wasn't warranted.



Burden, 58, oversaw a program that includes performance, installation and video art, while Rubins, 52, taught sculpture.



Burden did performance art in the 1970s and his best-known performance featured an assistant shooting him in the arm with a .22-caliber rifle. That work was different because the audience never felt in jeopardy, while the UCLA performance inspired "genuine fear," Watson said.





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UCLA-Best College in America for the money
UCLA>Ivy League

 

[Leimeng]

~ Good to hear. The Ivory Tower of academia has long been a stronghold for anti-American and anti-Constitution thinking. Let us hope and pray that more of the pathetic pseudo intellectuals retire soon!
~ Continue to discuss amongst yourselves...

Peace,

Leimeng

Flatulo Ergo Sum ~~~

~ Who are these people that have the time to figure out how many of ANYTHING placed end-to-end would circle the planet?

 

[HunterJon]

How is this terribly different from the play "Bang Bang Your Dead" about school shootings. Guns have been used in art for hundreds of years, both in performances and especially as sculture pieces.
http://www.engraver.net/pages/browning2.htm

 

[MoonlessNight]

Am I the only one who's a tad confused about what actually happened here? So, there was a student who may or may not have used a real gun to act like he was going to commit suicide in a performance, but in either case he didn't and the gun, real or not, didn't fire, but then when he left there was a gunshot sound? Is that pretty much correct?

If this was a play or something I don't see how it is terribly shocking, and I certainly don't see how watching someone put a gun to his own head is frightening while seeing someone shoot someone else is not.

 

[chalice_thunder]

It sounds as if it was a performance art piece - but nobody in the audience/class knew that it was actually ART - they thought they were in danger.

...of course, art IS dangerous...