Caught My Eye: Oxford University librarian is SACKED after students do the Harlem Shake

Oxford University librarian is SACKED after students do the Harlem Shake in her prestigious library

Evidently, senior staff members at St. Hilda’s, a 120-year-old Oxford University College, are incensed that students disrupted the quiet of the library by filming themselves doing the Harlem Shake, the latest dance craze and posting it on YouTube.  However, a 23 year old librarian named Calypso Nash is paying the price. She has been “sacked for not preventing the Harlem Shake taking place.”  Although Ms. Nash had nothing to do with planning the “disruption” nor was she asked if it could take place, she is absorbing the brunt of the official anger over the incident.  Of course, students at St. Hilda’s as well as the perpetrators of the offending dance are on her side and are calling for her to be rehired.

What do you think? Are officials right to uphold the sanctity of the library or should they take a “chill pill” and get over it.  Regardless, could there possibly be any justification for Ms. Nash being fired?  Should she be reinstated?

Or is there a need for added sanctions? Perhaps the offending students should be suspended for lacking the refined dancing skills expected of an Oxford undergraduate!

In any case, we’ll do our best to let you know how it all turns out.

(On a related note, what is your opinion on maintaining silence in an academic library?  Let us know by voting in our “I Wonder” Wednesday poll.)