Columbia OTR: Yale Out-Crazies Columbia

Yale Out-Crazies Columbia

Posted by almamater 04/22/2008 1:51 PM
Category: Tags: controversy, abortion, Aliza Shvarts, art, free speech

Dubbed the University of Havana North by conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly, Columbia seemed to have cornered the market on liberal craziness. As of last week, Yale may have stolen our title.

For her senior project, Yale art student Aliza Shvarts went far beyond what most people accept as art. Living in New York City, I have seen a lot: the New Museum features a display of Stouffer’s frozen food boxes glued to paper towel rolls, and I recently covered the Guggenheim’s exhibit of cars pierced by color-changing neon lights. But I have never seen or heard of anything like this.

Supposedly, Aliza has spent the last nine months accepting sperm donations, inseminating herself, and inducing miscarriages with herbal drugs. When the drugs induced heavy bleeding, she collected the blood in a cup and now has several samples preserved in her freezer. The “art” exhibition will feature a four-foot cube suspended from the ceiling, wrapped in hundreds of feet of plastic smeared with a mixture of Vaseline and her blood. Videos claiming to document her “miscarriages” will be projected on the cube and surrounding walls.

The truth of this story is absolutely open for debate: administrators say it is a lie; Aliza stands by her story. Regardless, the controversy has commanded attention from many major media sources and critics on both sides: pro-lifers are appalled, while free speech advocates are working to make sure she is protected. As for Yale, the school is demanding that Aliza provide a written statement confessing that her project is based on fiction – that she did not induce impregnate herself or induce miscarriages. They have also punished her faculty advisers for improper oversight.

My immediate reaction is EWWWW. But the First Amendment protects speech that is yucky, especially if it purports to have an artistic value. I think it would be incredibly unfair to punish Aliza or fail to give her credit for her senior project: her advisers led her to think that this project would be acceptable, and I highly doubt that exposing others to the work will inspire similar stunts. However, though Yale shouldn’t censor her speech, they don’t have to condone it. In other words, they shouldn’t punish her or destroy her “art,” but they don’t have to display it in their fancy gallery space. Doing so would suggest that Yale supports her actions, and the school is within its rights to reject them.

But you don’t have to take my word for it. Check out the Yale Daily News for more information. Decide for yourself if Aliza’s project is art, if it is unacceptably self-destructive, or if it is harmful to the public. Does it matter whether or not her story is true? How should her advisers have acted? How should Yale move forward?

One thing seems pretty certain: Columbia can continue its war protest until the end of school, and no one will bat an eyelash.

**Thanks to the Yale Daily News for the photograph and information for this post!**