I think that is cool, the school is right next to Black beach so why not. If this is an elective then why not drop it if the student feels uncomfortable. I’m hoping the acronym University of Socially Dead will be turned into University of Sexually Divine( or something like that). I am predicting more applications next year. Haha.
Did the S&M class include live performances? Back in the day in the 90s I had to pay to get in. San Francisco was a wonderful city then, now it is so gentrified. Or may be it is me who has become domesticated and fallen out of touch.
I read the comments romanigypsyeyes pointed to.
The class is a performance art class that isn’t required. The naked/nude “gesture” is one required piece for the class, not the final exam. Students are not required to disrobe for that piece, because there are many ways for an artist to perform “naked/nude” without being naked and nude. Some students do get naked, because nakedness is not unusual in performance art pieces, but other students remain clothed. The professor clarifies the requirements in the first class.
I second CF’s comments above. My child is a visual arts major at UCSD. That particular class is a prerequisite for other performance art classes, but it is NOT required for the major. And as artists do, “naked” is interpreted in a variety of ways. My child had another class that also had an assignment where some students chose to disrobe. Naked bodies are nothing new to art students. After several drawing classes on the human form, she said she was in no hurry to see another naked body.
Hmm. Either this is wrong or the ABC reporter did a terrible job, because she specifically says that the prof confirmed that all students must be naked, including him.
Nope but we did learn about plenty of opportunities to do ethnographic research in town 
The course is Visual Arts 104A:
It is a prerequisite to one other course, Visual Arts 104BN:
Courses in the department: http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/courses/VIS.html
According to http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/curric/VIS-ug.html , both 104A and 104BN are in lists of “choose four from N of these courses” (where N is seven or more) for visual arts studio majors and minors. A visual arts studio major or minor can easily choose other courses if s/he does not want to take 104A. Other visual arts majors and minors do not mention 104A.
Either the student in question wasn’t paying attention, or otherwise missed the announcement that the final gesture would be held in the nude, because her mother says she just recently found out about it. It seems a bit surprising that she would not have known about it prior to enrolling in the class, but perhaps she is a freshman or doesn’t have many friends in the program who might have warned her beforehand.
Considering the pre reqs for the class, she is almost certainly not a freshmen.
My theory: student was ok with it, mom somehow found out and flipped out. Student lies saying she didn’t know and that it was a final ( which, according to the syllabus is an outright lie). Mom goes to media which of course is too lazy to fact check. Right wing media picks it up. Ends with trumped up blood pressure over a whole lot of nothing.
The class is for performance art majors. I don’t imagine Mom is thrilled that she’s paying for daughter to learn to be a performance artist. Mom has the right not to fund a major she doesn’t like, but not the right to demand changes in art classes.
I really hate the poor job of reporting our media often does, but I do think watch dogging government programs is it’s most important function. University administration is unlikely to do anything about a potentially questionable course, given the autonomy allowed to faculty.
If there ever was a course needing “trigger” warnings, this would seem to be one of them.
Cover himself with what…a fig leaf?
Hmmn, I use to teach a legal writing class at Boalt Hall around 2000 or so, and this one student held a specific rank of fame–he was the “naked guy”–and he went around naked for several years. I saw him several times, always naked, except for his sandals and backpack. If I recall correctly he was a CAL swimmer, tall fellow who was very fit----I don’t recall there being a formal complaint. One the other hand, it’s CAL, and he was fabulously fit…
Re: naked guy at Berkeley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Martinez
http://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/may-june-2009-go-bare/out-eden
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/How-Berkeley-s-Naked-Guy-met-a-tragic-end-3232119.php
http://www.andrewmartinez.info/Home.html (note: revealing photo)
I know public nudity is legal in SF. Is that true for Berkeley as well?
In other news, reporters ferret out shocking fact that nude art models are required to remove their clothes.
As a freshman in college, my entire dorm faced Broadway. There was a studio art class one night per week, and they wanted natural light, apparently, because we - and all of Morningside Heights - had full frontal views. We could not identify faces, though.
@ucbalumnus - The naked guy info was depressing…
I could see a student becoming more and more uncomfortable with the idea as the semester went on. After spending many class hours with the professor and classmates, maybe the student feels the peers aren’t nice, that the professor has made unkind comments about the student’s other assignments, that after looking at these people she doesn’t want to know their naked selves.
Many people want to do skydiving or bungie jumping adventures, but when it comes time to make the jump, they back out.
On the news tonight, the chair person of the UCSD visual arts said the class is not a requirement and students can perform nude gestures as well.