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<p>It shouldn’t be all too long now before some university starts offering an engineering degree in “sexual surrogate” robotics.</p>
<p>That’s quite the RED about-face.</p>
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There’s possibly already something similar, I’m just afraid to do a Google search to find out.</p>
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<p>My older son took his first college class at age 12, the younger at age 14. Both were dual enrolled in high school. My son has a friend who’s officially homeschooled, but has been taking classes at Northwestern since about age 13. None of these kids, of course, would find themselves officially enrolled in a human sexuality class, but nevertheless, there are more than a few students on campus who are well below the age of 18 – and it’s not hard to sit in on a large class without being noticed.</p>
<p>I was a criminal justice major in graduate school. One of the classes I took was about sexual crimes. Plenty of discussion of weird/kinky practices there as they relate to crimes. It was a graduate level class so no underage students. The class was labeled as graphic since we had graphic descriptions of crimes and crime scenes. I don’t think that the term graphic would mean to everyone that there will be live sex scenes. There certainly weren’t at my school. There weren’t even videos of anything like this. There were discussions on what constitutes pornography, sexual criminal with weird fetishes, how to investigate such crimes, patterns of behavior, etc. but no actual videos or performances and I did learn a lot without any such images. I don’t think they would have enhance learning in any way whatsoever.</p>
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<p>I actually think that the demonstrator was willing, but if I was the professor I’d not want to have it be on my head if it turned out afterwards that she wasn’t. As I said, psych studies, even really innocuous ones, get signed consent forms from participants. Same with sociology studies, and I’m sure with other departments. That protects the university and the researcher. If the professor were conducting this study as part of a formal research project, you can bet that there’d be all kinds of releases. Yet this professor agreed on the spur of the moment to the public demonstration without really considering formal written consent issues. That’s probably the big legal issue the university faces.</p>
<p>I’m pretty liberal, both socially and politically, but I fail to see the intellectual value in this demonstration.</p>
<p>There needs to be some boundarys. If this is acceptable, possibly next week he’ll have an after school session with actual intercourse or a homosexual sexual experience. In certain settings, like a university classroom, there needs to be boundaries drawn. This wasn’t in someone’s apartment with consenting adults. </p>
<p>I don’t have an issue with it in certain settings, but not this setting. When one starts pushing the envelope, exactly how far should one push it.</p>
<p>I don’t understand what the fuss is about. I would understand if this were a Sex Ed class for 8th graders or 11th graders. But this is a university level class. There is nothing a 20 year old isn’t legally allowed to watch. The session was conducted after class and was entirely optional with no grading whatsoever. The students were warned several times that the content would be live and explicit. Am I missing something?</p>
<p>As an alum and parent of an incoming student, I’m disappointed. Not angry or firing off letters to the university, but this is not good publicity and it shows a lack of judgment on Bailey’s part. It’s just a classless stunt. However, I was always under the impression that Bailey was rather controversial in the field to begin with. Look, NU has enough “dirty laundry” with Arthur Butz (the Holocaust denier engineering professor that they’ve pretty much relegated to the sub-sub-basement of Tech) – they don’t need this publicity. Not a good day. Glad Schapiro is getting out in front of this and asking for an investigation.</p>
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<p>How is that an about-face? Did Schapiro say earlier he supported this incident?</p>
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<p>I can’t help but picture a room full of stogy administrators demanding a live re-enactment of the every detail of the show, before they “release” their “findings.”</p>
<p>You’re missing whatever I’m missing Alexandre.</p>
<p>I think it might have been better handled if the professor had invited the couple for the lecture – I have no objection to that in the context of a human sexuality class – and then if others were interested in viewing this couple or getting involved with the community, information as to where they could meet was disseminated. I don’t think it needed to occur right on the spot though. Or G-spot. Ha ha. </p>
<p>I don’t think it’s awful / terrible / the ruination of Northwestern, but it doesn’t reflect well.</p>
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<p>I think what you are missing is that this event was inappropriate for a university to offer as part of an on-campus course.</p>
<p>You and Alexandre seem to be of the mind that whatever consenting adults want to have happen at NU should be allowed to happen.</p>
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<p>I imagine for a class covering material such as this they might have had such forms distributed/collected at the beginning of class. In the past I’ve had people in my class sign a form on the first day of class if they’re willing to let me distribute homeworks by leaving them outside my office door so I don’t get in trouble with FERPA regulations. I imagine they had a similar sort of release at the beginning.</p>
<p>It just speaks to judgment. It’s not illegal for 21 year olds to drink and get falling down drunk, and certainly that goes on at NU (like every other university). However, the professor of a chemistry or biology class that was covering the topic of how alcohol is metabolized in the body would be using poor judgment if he invited / paid a 21 yo to stand in front of the class and drink til drunk to illustrate the point.</p>
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“Northwestern” in general did, so having the president come out against it seems like a change in policy.</p>
<p>Regarding post #106 and a legal consent form: I doubt this particular woman will cause any future problems for the university. However, suppose another woman consented to such an act, and later while going about her daily life in Evanston, she encounters some of the students from the lecture. And further suppose these students are not as mature as the professor believed them to be. What if they ■■■■■■■ and crack a joke about her preferences, and her co-workers or boss overhear them, and thereafter the woman knows that everyone at work KNOWS. She then feels shame and embarrassment, which she hadn’t anticipated she would feel back when she engaged in the demonstration in an accepting environment. Her mental health starts to deteriorate as she imagines that her co-workers are all talking about her behind her back. Perhaps disapproving family members find out through the grapevine as well. She then sues the school and professor, because they should have anticipated the psychological harm that could come to her as a result of this public exposure of what is still taboo behavior.</p>
<p>Or, imagine an individual with a psychological disorder resulting from an abusive childhood–a disorder that produces in him some deviant sexual behaviors he can not refrain from. For example, suppose this disorder produces in him the desire to masturbate or perform sex acts in public. (By the way, where have all the trenchcoat flashers gone?) Further suppose this illness led him to volunteer for such a demonstration, but then years later, after therapy, he is rehabilitated and clearer-thinking. Looking back on his participation in this lecture demonstration, he now believes that the professor took advantage of his psychological disorder. He sues.</p>