When Yale art student Aliza Shvarts did not display her abortion/miscarriage senior project last week, she effectively failed to fulfill the terms of the assignment. I had wondered whether that would get lost in the shuffle, and had wondered, too, exactly how Yale was going to assign her a grade, given that the project was never displayed, that the professor who was advising Shvarts had been disciplined for permitting it, and so on. Today the Yale Daily News answers these burning questions and more:

Aliza Shvarts '08 has submitted another art piece in place of her controversial senior project that purportedly documented nine months of self-induced miscarriages, the University said this week.

The announcement--which came Monday, a week and a half after Shvarts' initial project inspired nothing short of a national controversy--puts to rest the question of whether the Davenport College senior's art exhibit would ever be displayed. Last week, the University forbade Shvarts from installing it unless she admitted the piece was a work of fiction. She did not.

In the announcement, University spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said Shvarts requested permission to substitute a different piece of art in place of what Klasky termed "the performance piece" she had originally planned as her senior project.

"We welcomed the solution that Aliza proposed," Klasky said, "as we had been unable to determine with clarity whether Ms. Shvarts had in fact undertaken actions injurious to her health in carrying out her original project."

The director of undergraduate studies in the School of Art, Henk van Assen, approved her request, the statement said.

[...]

On Monday, faculty from the School of Art were scheduled to critique and evaluate her project, as is customary with senior projects for undergraduate art majors.

With no project on display, it was believed that Shvarts would have received a failing grade for her senior project. The project is a requirement for art majors, according to the Yale College Programs of Study.

Perhaps that possibility, observers mused, would be enough to compel her to agree to Salovey’s demands. Whether or not the possibility of failing played into her decision was unclear; van Assen has not commented publicly on the matter, nor has Shvarts' adviser, School of Art lecturer Pia Lindman.

But whether Shvarts would have failed may have been a moot point, since her failure to complete the Art major may not have affected her eligibility to receive a diploma.

According to the online Yale College directory, Shvarts is also enrolled in the English major. As long as she had at least 36 other credits to her name--not including ART 495, the senior project course--she would have remained eligible to graduate next month as an English major.

Shvarts' replacement exhibit is not on display in Green Hall at her request, officials said.