by Chris Peterson, Founder
What happened at Mesa Community College isn’t a misunderstanding. It’s not a teaching technique gone wrong. It’s not a gray area. It’s a massive institutional failure. And the students deserved so much better.
Mace Archer, a longtime theater instructor and director at MCC, is under investigation after multiple students accused him of encouraging them to strip naked during acting class exercises, touching them inappropriately, and regularly crossing personal and professional lines. And here’s the part that should outrage every parent, every faculty member, and every arts leader reading this: the administration was told. In February.
Let that sit.
A student gathered the courage to report what they believed to be unsafe, inappropriate classroom practices. And instead of jumping into action to protect the rest of the students, Mesa Community College waited. Waited to investigate. Waited to address it. Waited until local news caught wind, and only now, it seems, is anything being done.
According to a detailed report from the Arizona Republic, students in Archer’s Acting 2 class were assigned a midterm project called a risk exercise. Sounds harmless, right? Until students started interpreting risk the way Archer allegedly encouraged, by undressing in front of their classmates. One student, Gabrielle Monroe, says Archer suggested that stripping could fulfill the assignment, even if he didn’t outright demand it. The suggestion alone is wildly inappropriate in an academic setting, especially when coming from a person in a position of power. But it didn’t stop there. Other students report that Archer made flirtatious comments and touched them during class under the guise of corrections.
Let this be clear to every student currently enrolled in a theater program or considering one: you should never be asked—or even casually encouraged—to remove your clothing as part of an acting exercise. Period. Especially not without the presence of certified intimacy coordinators and clearly defined safety protocols in place. Any training environment that expects or suggests nudity without consent safeguards is not a place fostering growth. It’s a place crossing boundaries.
If even a fraction of what’s been alleged is true, Mace Archer should never be allowed to work with students again. Teaching is a privilege. It comes with immense responsibility and the obligation to do no harm. That trust was clearly broken—and you don’t get to rebuild a career on the backs of traumatized students.
