Campus controversies

Nigaleian --- a neologism which combines the words nigger and Laleian --- describes the 2004 scandal involving Associate Professor of Art Aida Laleian, Associate (then Assistant) Professor of Art Layla Ali '90 and the use of the term "nigger" at an Art department meeting.

For the most part, the facts of the scandal are not in dispute.

At a meeting of the Art Department (it is not clear if this meeting included professors of art history as well as studio art), Laleian

raised a concern about the status of her own field of professional work relative to the fields of the others. At one point, she made a heated statement to the effect that she did not want her field to be "used as a nigger."

Present at the meeting was Assistant Professor of Art Laylah Ali '90. Ali is African-American. Professor of Art Ed Epping claimed that

“All of the faculty who witnessed what happened at the meeting were stunned,” said Ed Epping, professor of art. “The force of the statement directed at Professor Ali was such that there was no way for Professor Ali to remain in the room.” Epping is on sabbatical in New York this semester, but was in attendance at the department meeting last spring.

When asked if he had been troubled by any public misconceptions of the incident, Epping said, “What I believe is not being discussed as fully as is required...is the vehemence with which this phrase was spoken and the directness of its intent.” It may read otherwise on paper, he said, but “the word ‘nigger’ was not used in that situation as a metaphor.”

It is not clear who, other than Epping, Laleian and Ali, was at the meeting.