May 5, 1998

Leslie Hitchcock, News Editor

A demonstration staged last Tuesday allowed three women to protest a rumored ban on nude models in Appalachian State University art classes
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Angela Parker began the protest by accident, she said.

“I went into class last Thursday and was told by the professor that there will no longer be nude models for the figure drawing class,” Parker said.

Junior Holly Mullins participated in the demonstration because she has “an objection to pulling nude models from the art class.”
After going to class in bathrobes to disrobe for the assignment, the demonstrators were asked to leave.

“[Professor of the Drawing Foundations I course Gary Nemkoski] said that we needed to leave, because there wasn’t going to be a figure drawing assignment,” Parker said.

“The assignment was conveniently changed because he knew that we were coming,” Parker said.
Nemcoski declined to comment on the situation.

Parker began a petition and planned to provide nude models for the class, despite the alleged ban.

She also wrote letters to Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Provost, Harvey Durham, and to the Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts.

Students speculated that the elimination of nude models was a moral decision made by Durham. However, this was not the case, according to Durham.

“There are different remembrances about what transpired in the Art Department,” he said.

A freshman filed a complaint with the department after taking offense to nude models used in an art class. Durham referred the student to the Equity Office to file a formal complaint.

“We tried to figure out if it was a standard occurrence to have nude models in freshman classes, and if it wasn’t, we needed to get it figured out,” Durham said.

Durham said that after the meetings with the Equity Office, rumors arose among art department faculty. “Things got turned around,” he said.

Nude models may now be used at a professor’s discretion.  If a professor wants to use nude models in class, they will be allowed, Durham said.

Durham thinks the situation has been resolved. “The tempest has passed,” he said.  “I think that things are back on track.  If the faculty is not happy, then they’ll let me know.”

Durham notified art department officials when concerns arose. “The class is a beginning level drawing class, and it came to our attention that nude models were being used,” said Robin Martindale, chairperson of the Department of Art.
“Models are still being used in advanced classes,” she said.

According to Dr. Ming Land, Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the Department of Fine and Applied Arts does not mandate individual courses. “We don’t sanction these kinds of things,” he said. “I know nothing of this.”

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