Professor Mauri Ylä-Kotola’s confused appearance led to the interruption of the lecture at the University of Lapland on Wednesday.
Mauri Ylä-Kotola in an archive photo in 2012, when he was still the rector of the University of Lapland. Anna-Leena Muotka
- The University of Lapland has for the time being exempted professor Mauri Ylä-Kotola from the obligation to work.
- The solution was reached when the lecture of the Theory to Practice course was interrupted on Wednesday due to Ylä-Kotola’s confused performance.
- According to the administrative director of the University of Lapland, Ari Konu, Ylä-Kotola was not able to work.
A professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Lapland has been released from his work obligation after his disorderly behavior led to the interruption of a lecture on Wednesday in Rovaniemi.
– The issue in the suspension was that we recognized that the teacher in charge, Professor Mauri Ylä-Kotola, was not able to perform his duties, says the administrative director of the University of Lapland Ari Topic.
The lecture was part of the Theory to Practice course. According to the study guide of the University of Lapland, “the course introduces you to the current theoretical discussions of art education, media studies, visual arts and design”.
During the lecture, Ylä-Kotola talked, among other things, about freemasons and the war crimes allegedly committed by Finns.
Konu does not comment on whether Ylä-Kotola’s strange performance was due to a drunken state or some other reason.
– We don’t take a stand when we can’t know for sure what caused the reduced work ability and confused appearance. We will surely figure this thing out.
Mauri Ylä-Kotola (left) and Teijo Pellinen were sitting at the front of the lecture hall when the administrative director Ari Konu and the vice dean Maria Huhmarniemi arrived to interrupt the lecture. Screenshot from the video recording. Screenshot
“From day to day”
According to Konu, Ylä-Kotola will not continue as the responsible teacher of the Theory to Practice course and will not participate in the university’s activities for the time being.
– He has been released from the obligation to work one day at a time, says Konu.
According to him, the investigation of the matter will continue according to normal processes. Ylä-Kotola has not yet been contacted on the subject.
Mauri Ylä-Kotola is a professor of media science at the University of Lapland’s Faculty of Arts. He previously worked for fifteen years as the rector of the university. He is also the former chairman of the Finnish Academy of Arts Foundation.
Iltalehti could not reach Ylä-Kotola to comment on what happened.
The administrative director of the University of Lapland, Ari Konu, says that the reason for Ylä-Kotola’s unusual behavior has not yet been clarified. University of Lapland / Pia Kuha
“It wasn’t relevant”
A media artist who was a guest lecturer at the canceled event Teijo Pellinen says that he had not noticed that Ylä-Kotola was drunk.
– I think I would have noticed if, for example, there had been a smell of alcohol.
According to Pellinen, Ylä-Kotola is “a very eccentric person”.
– He has his own personal way of speaking and acting. His way of speaking doesn’t bother me, and I feel that the students also asked practical questions there in the lecture hall.
Teijo Pellinen says that the freemasons, for example, were not related to the topic of the day in any way.
– It was not relevant, he states.
Pellinen says that Ylä-Kotola’s “associative way of performing” is not always relevant anyway.
Teijo Pellinen is also a graduate student at the University of Lapland. Mauri Ylä-Kotola is his dissertation supervisor.
The Emperor’s New Clothes
The video recording shows that before the interruption, one of the students criticized the lecture.
– This whole lecture has a really strange feeling. Such that this is some kind of societal test of the Emperor’s new clothes, that no one will say anything at any point.
In the Emperor’s New Clothes fairy tale, everyone notices the flaw, but no one says it out loud.
– It’s really hard for me to understand that I’m in a lecture like this at the university, the student says on the video recording.
Immediately after the speech, the vice dean of the Faculty of Arts appears on the video recording Maria Huhmarniemiwho told those watching the lecture both present and remotely that the lecture would be interrupted.
– It was allowed to continue for a long time, the student commented.
Iltalehti reached out to Huhmarniemi, who said that the responsibility for information in the matter rests with Administrative Director Ari Konu.
Konu was also interrupting the lecture himself. According to him, the information about the professor’s unusual behavior had come from a staff representative. Konu says that the interruption of the lecture went smoothly.
The other one went too
After Huhmarniemi’s suspension announcement, Teijo Pellinen asked if he could show the students one more video. Huhmarniemi responded by announcing again that the lecture would be interrupted.
Pellinen tells Iltalehti that he has not been told the reason for the suspension. He wonders what happened.
– I have never been speaking to an audience in such a way that the speech and the occasion were interrupted.
According to Pellinen, he would have had another lecture related to the course on Friday, but it was canceled as well.
– Of course, it’s sad when I was prepared. What I am talking about is related to my long-term research, and I would have liked to talk to the students about it.
Iltalehti could not reach Ari Konu again on Thursday to comment on the cancellation of Pellinen’s second lecture.
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