All forms of art will offend somebody. It certainly won't be me, because I don't want people drawing lines around me. I don't have to like the art that is hanging from the exhibition walls, but I will appreciate it. The mission of many universities is to stimulate free thought, open-mindedness, inquiry, and intellectual cultivation and maturation. Universities educate, and that encompasses a responsibility to educate its graduating seniors in art about what it means to be an artist.
Students prepare to have their work seen, understood, and criticized.
To practically apply this education, the graduating art students must not be denied the traditional gallery forum. Just as there would not be a question about removing lab space from a science student, even though there may be moral objections to research by other students or community members, it is no less vital to the education of an art student to have both space for their artistic displays and the public commentary such displays elicit. Public response is critical to both the personal self-definition of the artist and to evolving societal views of what constitutes art. Yet, personal taste and differing aesthetic understandings can lead to institutional and social conflicts. As a possible resolution, the university could place a public declaration, in the form of a plaque or sign, at the entrance to the gallery, which explains the purpose of student art exhibits.