Fanshawe cans butt art prof
LONDON, ON. - A Fanshawe College professor who sparked a community controversy when his off-hours work as a paint smearing butt and genital printing artist became known has been fired.
The College Board of Governors, in a unanimous voice vote, decided to terminate Harry Rumpenis at a meeting Tuesday night, spokeswoman Joesphine Boxer said.
The vote came during a three-hour meeting during which the board heard recommendations that Rumpenis be fired.
In its decision, the Board figured that students should receive their education in a positive learning environment free from distractions and disruptions, Boxer said.
The Ontario colleges system operates under the pretense that it holds respect, responsibility, honesty and accountability as core values for all students and employees to abide, and the Board clearly felt that Rumpenis had gone outside those parameters with his art.
Rumpenis was suspended in December just after exams were completed and he had filed his final grades so as not to burden any administartive staff or other professors that could potentially generate union complaints that extra work was being dumped upon them, after objections were raised about Rumpenis private abstract artwork, much of which includes smearing his posterior and genitals, including his scrotum with paint and pressing them against canvas.
The unique approach to art became a topic when a clip showing Rumpenis, pictured above, wearing a fake nose and glasses, a towel on his head and black thong, turned up on GrooveTube.
That video inevitably made its way to the Fanshawe's president and vice-presidents offices.
Rumpenis is seeking legal advice onthe issue but the case is far from simple.
“A public employee such as a college professor has a right to free expression outside the work place so long as that free expression doesn't go beyond his ability to do his job,” said a College and Univerities ministry official, after learning of the board's vote to dismiss Rumpenis.
Disclaimer: Stories printed in the Fanshawe Distorter are in fact fictious. Any resemblance to persons real or dead is intentional and entirely hilarious. Proudly distorting the truth since 2005.
The College Board of Governors, in a unanimous voice vote, decided to terminate Harry Rumpenis at a meeting Tuesday night, spokeswoman Joesphine Boxer said.
The vote came during a three-hour meeting during which the board heard recommendations that Rumpenis be fired.
In its decision, the Board figured that students should receive their education in a positive learning environment free from distractions and disruptions, Boxer said.
The Ontario colleges system operates under the pretense that it holds respect, responsibility, honesty and accountability as core values for all students and employees to abide, and the Board clearly felt that Rumpenis had gone outside those parameters with his art.
Rumpenis was suspended in December just after exams were completed and he had filed his final grades so as not to burden any administartive staff or other professors that could potentially generate union complaints that extra work was being dumped upon them, after objections were raised about Rumpenis private abstract artwork, much of which includes smearing his posterior and genitals, including his scrotum with paint and pressing them against canvas.
The unique approach to art became a topic when a clip showing Rumpenis, pictured above, wearing a fake nose and glasses, a towel on his head and black thong, turned up on GrooveTube.
That video inevitably made its way to the Fanshawe's president and vice-presidents offices.
Rumpenis is seeking legal advice onthe issue but the case is far from simple.
“A public employee such as a college professor has a right to free expression outside the work place so long as that free expression doesn't go beyond his ability to do his job,” said a College and Univerities ministry official, after learning of the board's vote to dismiss Rumpenis.
Disclaimer: Stories printed in the Fanshawe Distorter are in fact fictious. Any resemblance to persons real or dead is intentional and entirely hilarious. Proudly distorting the truth since 2005.
