Galen Kusic, Editor

California State University Maritime Academy has a long history, especially aboard the institution’s training vessel, the Training Ship Golden Bear.

Students take voyages on the training vessel around the world each summer, gaining valuable sailing experience to prepare for life as a maritime professional. To commemorate many of these voyages, murals have been painted by students on the ship over the course of three decades to acknowledge those who traveled the seas together on their journey towards graduation and a life on the water.

Those murals have now come into question, as University President Thomas Cropper has called for their removal. He cites serious concerns by Board of Trustees members, Day on the Bay visitors, faculty, staff and cadets “related to objectification, in particular, images that are vulgar, offensive and/or objectify women.”

Cadets, faculty and alumni did not take kindly to word that the murals would be painted over, especially senior 2D Executive Officer Karl Rodvik, who with a fellow student began to circulate a petition after they heard of the troubling news. To date, the petition has nearly 2,500 signatures.

“I started a petition to stop this grotesque infringement on student free speech and artistic expression,” said Rodvik. “Alumni, many faculty members, parents and students have all banded together to stop the destruction of such meaningful and historic art.”

A student friend of Rodvik’s who works in the public relations department first informed him that the President had ordered them to photograph and archive all of the photos before spring break because they intended to paint over the murals.

“The University never informed the student body that the murals were going to be painted over in the first place,” said Rodvik. “He (Cropper) has made no efforts to work with student body leaders towards a solution… many of whom are alumni, maritime industry professionals, and parents.”

The petition reads, “the murals not only serve as great pride for CMA alumni, but inspire prospective students and other visitors to the ship about the adventure of seafaring life.”

The following day after the petition was put online, Cropper sent out a letter, calling for all the murals to be photographed and archived and that, “We’re going to create a fresh start — literally, a clean slate.”

“President Cropper took zero initiative in seeking student input, feedback or possible solutions to resolving the complaints,” said Rodvik. “The worst part of his unilateral decision is that the vast majority of the murals are not offensive in anyway, but instead are simply beautiful historic pieces of art.”

Many students protested during the week, wearing white shirts on campus to protest the president’s plans.

The captain of the Golden Bear, Samuel Pecota, issued an email to the campus community describing the formation of a committee to determine how to best move forward with the murals.

“I am forming an ad hoc committee to develop a policy for the future approval process for such murals,” said Pecota in the e-mail. “I have recommended to the president, and he has agreed, that several constituencies, both on campus and off, be represented on this committee. These include cadets, faculty, staff and alumni.”

Pecota intends to have the murals photo archived before the 5 May departure of the training ship on this year’s summer cruise. Once the photographs have been taken and recorded, they will be made available to the public for viewing and downloading through the Cal Maritime website. Pecota plans to contact each of the groups to solicit recommended candidates to serve on the committee to develop an “equitable and sustainable” policy for cadet murals on the Golden Bear.

“We have a situation where we want to encourage continued expression of the cadet experience at sea, create an environment of genuine teamwork that does not insult, belittle or objectify women, and still preserve the works of folk-art by our alumni,” said Copper.

To date, Copper has not issued a follow up e-mail responding to the public outcry or to clarify the fate of the offensive murals. Rodvik believes if the petition had not gained such popularity and the issue spread across the social media of students, alumni and maritime industry professionals, the university would have carried out their decision to paint over the murals during spring break.

“It appears that the murals are saved for now, but I fear that this committee will still decide to remove certain “offensive” murals in the future, which I am still against,” said Rodvik. “The people spoke and actually made a difference against the disconnected administration who only seemed concerned with towing the line of political correctness.”