A University of Saskatchewan professor was forced to remove inflatable dummies and profane posters from his office after a complaint.
David Williams, an associate professor of marketing, said he was given a notification by email Feb. 12 that his “office décor is problematic, as it interferes with the provision of a respectful, productive environment for working or learning.”
Williams said the decorations were meant to engage visiting students, and serve as a conversation starter.
”I had some inflatable mannequins in my office that look like business people, from Applebee’s promotions that were ‘lunch decoys,’” he said. “And I had some posters on my wall, those ‘Stay calm,’ ‘Don’t panic,’ those posters. I had one that said ‘Buy more shit, or we’re all fucked.’ I had another one that said, ‘Get shit done.’”
He said he received the notification from the dean of the Edwards School of Business Daphne Taras, following a letter and visit by department head John Rigby. The preliminary complaint originated from an anonymous support staff member.
Rigby declined to comment, stating the situation is currently under dispute. Williams said he has since altered his office setting.
“I bought some inflatable letters you can get from like party stores, and I have ‘U,’ ‘C,’ and ‘K’ hanging up, because apparently that can’t be offensive,” he said. “I have the letters ‘S,’ ‘H,’ ‘T’ on the wall, because that doesn’t spell anything, of course.”
Williams said he filed a grievance with the university’s faculty association.
“The whole thing was meant to be satire, if that makes sense, of those inspirational messages and especially of buying more stuff than you really need,” Williams said. “It’s marketing. It’s about standing out, being different, getting a message across. It was just to make this a more fun place to work.”
Williams said he didn’t feel the decoration made for a negative learning environment.
“I don’t think it’s anymore offensive than me picking up an issue of Vogue magazine,” he said.
