The College Fix

If you read our story earlier this week on the University of California-San Diego visual-arts class that allegedly requires its students to strip naked with their professor (the school claims you can just be emotionally naked), you might have wondered whether UCSD has any conduct policies that, you know, frown upon such a professorial diktat.

There are at least three, according to Townhall.com columnist Liz Harrison.

First, this class is a prerequisite for another class, so under the “harassment in general” policy, students who object to the nudity requirement would be denied “equal access” to resources based on their real or “perceived” membership in a protected class:

[T]his would exclude at the very least Muslim female students from participating in this course, and therefore whatever academic program that requires it. It could also be found objectionable for other students based on religious beliefs, including some Christian denominations. Additionally, married students with spouses that would object to having their mates seen in the nude by an entire classroom would have standing to make a complaint under this clause. [Harrison also notes the practically unbounded “perceived membership” category.]

The sexual-harassment policy forbids “all forms of harassment and sex offenses” against members of the university community, which would not be tolerated were an employee told by a supervisor to strip down in their office, she says:

Maybe someone needs to remind the administration that the campus does exist in the real world, in spite of how much they might wish it otherwise, and that students have the same rights as their staff.

The “consensual relationships” policy talks about sex but “is really about power,” Harrison says:

As for defining “sexual activity” in this case, the course requires students to engage in some sort of erotic action to define their “erotic self.” … [Professor Ricardo] Dominguez doesn’t make this situation any better by stripping down himself – if anything, that makes it worse, if that’s possible. Regardless of whether or not the professor gets any sexual gratification out of this exercise, the fact is that the students are forced to engage in “erotic” behavior for a grade. … Consent is off the table, because it’s already been established that at least some students must participate in this class in order to complete their academic programs.

It’ll be interesting to see how the school deals with this hubbub, based on practices that go back a decade with no apparent complaints.

We’ve noted many times that school harassment policies often lean toward the absurd, punishing “offensive jokes,” “annoying” emails, or the male in a disputed sexual encounter with a female when both are “impaired” by booze.

But it’s hard to see how this exercise – even suggesting to a student that they could fulfill their “erotic” project by getting naked with you – doesn’t immediately set off alarm bells with hyper-sensitive administrators.

Trigger warning: Maybe UCSD simply decided that anything goes with artists.

Read the column.

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