Regarding the mural defacing

The Office of the Dean of Student Affairs, in conjunction with other university offices, has looked into the recent defacing and eventual removal of the Shephard Fairey mural on display outside the campus center.

It is now clear that the mural was postered over as a class assignment for a course in the Experimental College on "Guerilla Performance Art and Politics," taught by a visiting lecturer. The incident is troubling in that many community members rejoiced in the university's ownership of the Fairey mural, which was first partially damaged by unknown individuals who tore away parts of it prior to the class assignment, and then destroyed by the class posters that covered most of it. The visiting lecturer has stated that Fairey intends for his art to be interactive and thus to be altered by others' additions to his originals. However, it is not clear that this view applies to a work that was given to the Tufts community. Many community members have expressed that they saw the additions to the mural to be simply vandalism.

So what is the outcome of this incident? First, the Experimental College has a well-deserved reputation for offering courses outside of the traditional curriculum. The Office of the Dean of Arts and Sciences will be working with the ExCollege to ensure that this tradition continues. Second, the complexities inherent in considering the actions of the students in the class are significant -- so significant that a judicial outcome for the postering is not appropriate. Were other options available for an exercise in real interactive art? Of course there were. Unfortunately, no consideration of the Tufts community as a whole was evident in the acts of those who removed or vandalized the mural and sadly, the most abiding outcome for many is the loss of something special.

Sincerely,
James M. Glaser
Dean of Undergraduate Education

Bruce Reitman
Dean of Student Affairs