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PUBLISHED: 03-09-09
Officials shed clothes, Carter apologizes
Complaints made about VP, dean at Manifest kick-off
The actions of two high-ranking administrators at a Manifest kick-off meeting on Feb. 23 stirred up some controversy last week on campus.
After at least one complaint was filed with Human Resources, an incident at the open meeting involving Mark Kelly, vice president of Student Affairs, and Eliza Nichols, dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts, briefly shedding garments was brought to the attention of the Office of the General Counsel, and Columbia President Warrick L. Carter released a statement addressing the incident.
“The kick-off event for Manifest 2009, held on Feb. 23, was intended to be energetic and enthusiastic,” Carter said in the statement sent to The Chronicle on March 6 as an advertisement. “Unfortunately, the opening presentations by two senior college administrators were not in keeping with the expected decorum and behavior of senior leaders of this institution. Their actions shifted the focus away from our students and their work.”
The Chronicle was not present at the meeting. The presentations were filmed by Frequency TV for Manifest promotional purposes. Chris West, operations manager of Frequency TV, said the tape from the event was later requested by Carter’s office. After requesting to view the tape, The Chronicle was allowed to view the footage in Carter’s office on the sixth floor of the Alexandroff Campus Center, 600 S. Michigan Ave.
Yvonne Sode, executive assistant to the president, then released a statement on Carter’s behalf.
“[Carter] will not release the footage, as the behavior demonstrated is not condoned,” Sode said. “He does support freedom of press and speech; however, he believes further exposure of the video’s contents would serve no good purpose. After viewing the video, you can decide whether the incident is newsworthy.”
A viewing of the tape revealed the following: During his introduction at the Manifest Kick-Off Meeting in the Conaway Center at the 1104 Center, 1104 S. Wabash Ave., Kelly told the crowd that he was “not feeling quite comfortable, so I need to get comfortable” and proceeded to remove his button-up shirt, revealing his bare chest, while laughter and applause could be heard from the crowd. He then changed into a Manifest 2009 T-shirt at the podium he was standing at and continued with his presentation.
Shortly thereafter, Nichols walked up to the podium to speak. She removed a scarf from around her neck, took off her jacket and said “I just want to show you something.”
Nichols then removed her bra from underneath her long-sleeved blouse, held it up and said, “This is the Manifest color this year […] Mark didn’t give me a T-shirt.”
After placing her bra on the podium, Nichols then said, “Mark, I want to see the color of your underwear.” Kelly is heard saying something inaudible off-camera, to which Nichols said “Oh, he’s not wearing any.”
Mark Kelly later told The Chronicle he was just trying to get students “into the spirit” of Manifest at the kick-off meeting.
“I am only aware that I had one complaint about what I was doing at the meeting,” he said. “I was just the coach putting on the jersey. That’s what I was trying to do.”
Nichols did not return several messages from The Chronicle for comment.
Ellen Krutz, vice president of Human Resources, said she could not discuss details about the incident but could confirm that a complaint was filed with Human Resources and is currently under review. In most cases, Krutz said complaints filed with Human Resources are investigated by herself or one of her staffers. A complaint can be resolved with the supervisor and the employee, but sometimes it may need to go up higher levels, including the General Counsel, the Provost’s Office or the president’s office.
“It really depends on the circumstances of the situation,” she said. “Usually our focus is to keep the circle small, unless there’s some reason for it to be bigger. But it’s entirely possible that more than one complaint is received in more than one area.”
Although it’s not clear why the incident was brought to the Office of the General Counsel, Annice Kelly, vice president and general counsel, said she could not comment on specific situations, as everything she does or says is protected by attorney-client privilege.
“There is a tape, so it is what it is. I can tell you that the school doesn’t condone that kind of behavior,” she said. “The college over the years has dealt with many kinds of conduct issues, and we have dealt with them appropriately. Each one is very circumstantial, fact-specific, so there isn’t a hard and fast response to anything. Everything gets judged on its own merits and in its own circumstances.”
In his statement provided to The Chronicle on March 6, Carter also apologized on behalf of the college for the officials’ actions.
“I apologize to any members of the college community that were offended by these actions. Both of the administrators accept the responsibility for their actions and the consequences associated with them.”
Although she could not comment on this specific matter, Annice Kelly said consequences employers impose on employees for incidents can vary.
“Not talking about this specific [matter], any employer always has the range of the proverbial slap on the wrist, which would be like an oral warning all the way up to termination,” she said. “That’s the range that any employer has.”
The incident is still under review, and no consequences had been imposed as of March 6. But Carter said in his statement, “I know they are strong leaders and will continue to provide leadership and make important contributions to the college.”
More than 200 guests attended the Manifest kick-off meeting, where students and faculty presented plans and goals for the festivities in May. Ayisha Jaffer, president of the Student Programming Board, was at the meeting and said because Columbia is all about “innovation, surprises and creativity,” she didn’t think the behavior exhibited by Mark Kelly was inappropriate.
“Seeing Mark Kelly—this really professional guy—get crazy and get into it just made me think, ‘Wow, how crazy is Manifest going to get this year?’” she said. “It was very Columbia of Mark.”
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Mar 9th 2009
As a former art student, I am appalled that the situation as described above is being considered at all inappropriate when taken in context of the situation.If I were a student at Columbia College, I would reconsider remaining in a school where such a trivial incident was called into question.
Mar 9th 2009
Ok Columbia is a very free spirited school…so the whole taking the shirt off thing…not surprising. But I do think the bra was crossing the line. Yes we create change…but not change for stripping. Columbia needs to start to present a professional front. Ask people around the country how they feel about Columbia and many will tell you that they don’t take us seriously…..hmm…I wonder why?
Mar 10th 2009
Columbia College is a school of art and expression. If the speakers chose to strip down to the aforementioned underwear to make their point they should have every right. It was mentioned in the article that Columbia is a school of “innovation, surprises and creativity.” This seemed to have all three. Kudos to them for having, and literally showing, the free and artistic spirit that I chose when I was looking for a college.
Mar 10th 2009
This is a trivial incident and the administration is completely overreacting. At a school where all sorts of creative art-making and performance is encouraged, it’s probable that this is hardly the most interesting event to go down on campus this week.
Columbia is a place that has historically encouraged risk-taking, cutting-edge thinking and acting, and this type of prudish administrative reaction betrays that heritage.
Mar 12th 2009
The fact that this is an issue at all should call into question the leadership and priorities of Dr. Carter and the board of Columbia. It seems to me that there are probably other issues going on and this is a smoke screen of bs. Nobody loves Columbia more than Mark Kelly and there is nothing in the above that even comes close to being inappropriate. Risky? Yes, but what kind of school is this? Is this is junior high? Is this a John Ashcroft Memorial College? Is he dead? I always forget. The bra thing, yeah, that may have gone overboard but jesus people, one student complained? One student always complains, about everything, everytime. If there was more a majority of people offended, different story and if that was the case, I would resign from Columbia this very second. Let me know if I should resign. Something very fishy is going on here. I think people need to be very vocal about this. Lets please not let this incident go further and embarass this growing and important institution.
Mar 12th 2009
Let’s all get our priorities straight here.
I think that this is an important new beginning for Columbia in the right direction. Big kudos to Eliza Nichols for taking the initiative to do something unorthodox and remove her brassiere.
Let’s all respect Nichol’s leadership, and hopefully other female faculty will follow suit and we will see this pattern continue with many more lingerie-removals from female faculty (and students) at next years Manifest.
Well played, Eliza Nichols, well played!
Mar 14th 2009
I am not upset at the incident in question. What makes me so angry to the point I am debating if I should stay in this school or not- is the hypocritical comment of Dr. Carter. He supports free speech, but will not let the video to be shown?
Dr. Carter- take a spell in the Legal Aspects of the Arts class. 1st amendment covers the freedom of expression (which is what Kelly and Nicolas did) and the freedom of the press (which you are not allowing anyone to see this footage except a few students).
Between this and the media ban that the SGA imposed, I am calling into question what this administration deems as “free speech”.
Mar 14th 2009
More of Dr. Warrick Carter’s work I see. What once was a free spirited, liberty filled education mecca is now a politically correct, dumbed down version of that Carter percieves the school should be. Just like his turning of the Chronicle from Leopard to Lamb, and the firing of a part time employee/student from Math Science for a satirical website.
So much for a liberal arts and media College! HA!
Ars Gratia Artis Dr. Carter, Ars Gratia Artis
Mar 14th 2009
Why is this anymore different than a person putting their T-Shirt on or removing their T-Shirt from the Beach or aboard a boat?
And does not anyone remember the Women’s Lib movement where women removed their bras, and burned them in effigy in the street?
Is it these innocent and historic symbols that offends Dr. Carter, or is it that he doesn’t understand them?
Mar 18th 2009
Janet Jackson’s nipple appears on network television during the Super Bowl for a few seconds. Howard Stern is too raunchy on talk radio so he has his show canceled and as a result moves to SIRIUS radio. A reality television show didn’t pixellate that body part enough or correctly.
What would have happened if the complaint was filed and nothing happened with it? What if Kelly and Nichols had not been asked to apologize? And what if the Chronicle didn’t publish an account of the incident that featured the story of how they were told what they were allowed to do and not do with the footage and where they were allowed to view it and not view it?
Would there be any controversy at all?
The complaint makes this situation worse than it really is. It makes the situation seem like there are bad guys and good guys when there really were no bad guys or good guys at all.
I doubt that Kelly or Nichols intended to treat Columbia students to a peep show. This was an act meant to spark enthusiasm for Manifest.
And, how sexist is it that some would suggest it’s okay for Mark Kelly to take off his shirt but if Eliza Nichols wants to slip her bra off, well, that’s just crossing the line? Manifest and the administration have gone too far!
This incident will not result in me leaving Columbia (some comments suggest we should do that). It will however open my eyes further to issues of censorship and academic freedom.
Remember, in the fall, the controversy that erupted around Rob Kolodziej here at Columbia?
He closed his opening introduction with the words, “If you can’t handle me saying the words nigger, faggot or nappy-headed hos, this is not the class for you and you can leave right now.”
That led to one student dropping the class and a complaint which resulted in action so she could sleep at night knowing one more teacher was not allowed to teach because he chose to use words that carry taboos with them.
The fact that Columbia was more conducive to free speech and freedom of expression than many other campuses in the nation was why I came here. I felt at home due to all the openness and free-flowing exchange of unfiltered ideas that occurs here in classrooms every day.
Columbia needs to foster an atmosphere that does not create a nanny state for students and that does not stunt spontaneity which has no intention to offend or rudely bother anybody at all.
Columbia needs to allow academic freedom and freedom of expression and speech on campus.
Mar 23rd 2009
As a former student, I’m with the rest of the comment gallery on this. It’s amazing that something like this should be a big deal at a liberal arts college. Unfortunately, it seems that the school is concerned with becoming more like traditional schools instead of taking an active role in staying outside of the box. I would hope the administration has better things to do than wagging its finger, nannying its employees and students.