To Be or Not To Be PC, That is The Question -- 05/05/1999

To Be or Not To Be PC, That is The Question

05 May, 1999

By Bruce Sullivan
CNS Staff Writer

(CNS) – In his lawsuit against Arizona State University, drama professor Jared Sakren charges that the school violated his civil rights when he was allegedly denied tenure last year for using too much Shakespeare and too few works like "Betty the Yeti: An Eco Fable" to teach acting.

"Their interest was in presenting a certain viewpoint, a feminist viewpoint," Sakren said in a recent interview.

In addition to being asked to use "Betty the Yeti," which has been described in reviews as "the timeless tale of an abominable snow-woman who seduces a logger and converts him to environmentalism," Sakren maintains that he was encouraged to change works like "Taming of the Shrew" so it "wouldn't offend women."

The 42-year-old Sakren has taught drama at Yale and the Julliard School in New York. His former students include Annette Bening, Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, and Kevin Spacey. Arizona State University hired Sakren in 1994 to create a graduate level acting curriculum, after recruiting him at a Shakespeare festival in Alabama.

"ASU made a gross error," Bening told CAMPUS: America's Student Newspaper.

"This talented, energetic, caring teacher has fallen victim to an atmosphere of political correctness and this is wrong," said Bening.

Sakren was with his lawyer and was unavailable for comment, but his wife, Jackie Sakren told CNS that the trial is scheduled for May 17. She said her husband is currently directing a Shakespeare festival in Sedona, Arizona and running a theatre in Phoenix.

Last year Sakren received the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's Polly Award, given annually to publicize "outrageous" acts of political correctness, the institute's director of university affairs, Thor L. Halvorssen told CNS.

"Jared has been slandered and has been a real victim of political correctness," Halvorssen said.

Officials at ASU have been advised by attorneys not to comment on why Sakren was denied tenure, spokesperson Nancy Neff told CNS. However, she did send a statement from the ASU Department of Theatre chairperson, Bonnie Eckard, defending the university's position on classical theatre.

"Shakespeare and the classics are alive and well at ASU," wrote Eckard. She said the administration was in "shock that a faculty member would suggest he was terminated for 'teaching Shakespeare,' or interpreting Shakespeare in certain ways."

Multiple news sources report that the university maintains Sakren was denied tenure because he didn't fulfill an agreement to prepare actors for a changing theatrical job market where interest in Shakespeare is dwindling.

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