Chris Drury’s “Carbon Sink” as installed on the University of Wyoming’s campus. The 36-foot diameter sculpture, composed of scorched wood felled by pine beetles, was removed in spring 2012.
After University of Wyoming administration removed the “Carbon Sink” artwork made from logs from Rocky Mountain forests killed by the pine beetle interlaced in a spiral upon a bed of coal, groups have been quick to name it.
Newspapers called it a fiasco. Energy industry leaders called it a snub to the business that fills university coffers. Some students are calling it censorship.
The art piece was a critique of the coal industry, a jab at the effects of global warming and a conversational think-piece for university students.
ASUW proposed a resolution last week, which was struck down on Tuesday, that faults University of Wyoming administration with failing to preserve an academic environment and petitions the UW Board of Trustees to make academic freedom a top priority in selecting the next university president.
Sen. Kat Hasley, one of the authors of the bill, said the resolution is not a persecution or attack on anyone.
Hasley met UW student Jackson Clarendon, who has been active on the issue, at the annual Good Mule Conference. He sent her an exhaustive list of information on the problem and “was the driving force behind the legislation,” Hasley said.
“I don’t like hearing about my university in the New York Times and other national publications in a negative light,” Hasley said. “The newspapers have been saying things, industry leaders have been saying things, but the students hadn’t really said anything. So we are putting it on the table.”
Hasley discussed the resolution at a luncheon with the Board of Trustees. She said they seemed to be on board.
“It’s easy to say that academic freedom is important, but we want someone as president who believes it in an actual way, not just in a theoretical way,” Hasley said.
The resolution mirrors a similar resolution over academic freedom and censorship passed by faculty senate in past years.
The meat of the bill, the ‘therefore’ clauses positioned at the end of the legislation, outlines any action taken. One clause stirs up more debate than the other.
One therefore clause says, “ASUW will call upon the Board of Trustees to consider willingness to protect freedom and expression of opposing viewpoints as a top priority in the selection of the next university president.”
ASUW President Joel Defebaugh said he agrees with this clause. “The university should be a place where academic freedom is valued and I certainly agree,” Defebaugh said.
The other clause says that ASUW will “express its disapproval of the University of Wyoming’s administration having failed to preserve an academic environment allowing for dissenting opinions and intellectual creativity.”
Defebaugh does not agree that the removal of the artwork constitutes an act of censorship.
“I don’t view the removal of the Carbon Sink as an attack on academic freedom at the university. The installation was on campus for 17-some months. Whatever it was trying to say, it said,” Defebaugh said.
Defebaugh also said the artwork, along with the 17 others on campus at the time, were on display to compensate for the art museum’s renovation. It was removed as all the other installations were removed.
“There is a fear that industry is making a move into education. As far as academics, in this state, they are pretty hands off,” Defebaugh said. “I would encourage anyone to look at Texas A&M as a university where industry has much more to do with the actual academics. Governor [Rick] Perry appoints regents there and encourages more of a consumer mindset, moving away from the use of tenured faculty and toward using industry leaders.”
The ASUW president did say he would like to see the Wyoming governor appoint someone to the Board of Trustees from academia, one who might better understand it.
