Professor dismissed after students found chained to wall in controversial Plato lecture
By Walker King
Nov. 12, 2012
Details have just begun to emerge regarding the conditions in Professor Barry Heitzmans section of the Greek Thought and Literature class, where students were reportedly kept chained to walls and forced to watch shadows cast by a large fire Heitzman had lit in the back of the room.
University officials dismissed Heitzman Wednesday, after the investigation of noise complaints from neighboring classes revealed the imprisoned students, who pleaded that they had been locked up for several days and needed to be freed.
It was crazy. We came in one morning after a Plato reading, and he had a whip, said first-year Mark Robins. He made us strip naked, then put shackles around our arms and legs. There was this big bonfire in the back of the room, too, but it looked like there was room for someone to walk in front of it.
He just kept yelling, ‘Look at the shadows! Look at the shadows!’ said Robins, shuddering.
The University released a statement shortly after Heitzmans dismissal was made public. While we respect the right of our professors to instruct in innovative ways, and in fact encourage it, Professor Heitzman showed a blatant disregard for the facilities of the University in burning several desks and chairs, as well as drilling into walls to mount his slave-containment apparatus.
This is not the first time Heitzman has run afoul of administration. In 2006, Heitzman was sanctioned after soot left on the walls from his lecture entitled Marx Enemy: Working Conditions in a 19th-Century German Factory proved difficult to remove.
A University spokesman also remarked that pulling an ox-drawn cart through classrooms so that students would be able to observe its skewed shadow on the wall is explicitly forbidden.
It was kind of weird, added Robins. After staring at those shadows for a few days without food or water, I started to think about how we perceive all of reality. I thought that maybe it wasnt just that ox, or those olive merchants that we couldnt really see, but maybe all that we interact with in life is just the impression of some great true form perpetually hidden from our view and understanding.
Never mind, Robins said after a few moments’ thought. Thats kind of stupid.
Professor Heitzman declined to comment.
