IU's real porn problem

The firestorm over the IU porno scandal rages on. One of the biggest issues of the scandal is that taxpayer money was used to support Teter Quad's transformation from a "learning community" to a sweaty brothel. Indiana citizens, notorious for their conservative views, were outraged.\nWhat is interesting is most taxpayers do not know how far IU goes to encourage students to have sex. Residential assistants in every dorm are given condoms to distribute to students in need. IU offers F255, "Human Sexuality," a class that shows pornography and discusses some of the more "diverse" sexual practices an individual or couple (or a group, for that matter) can engage in. The policies and curriculum IU currently has promote students to sexually experiment. By this logic, the University should embrace pornographers that come to IU and cast students because they are helping these students explore another aspect of their sexual identity. Plus, what better way to show IU's support for sexual liberation than by exposing these policies to the rest of the nation through pornographic movies filmed right here in Bloomington? The University can use the Shane's World incident to enlighten the rest of the United States about the values it promotes here in Indiana. \nIn the fall, Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly told viewers that IUB Chancellor Sharon Brehm declined to appear on "The O'Reilly Factor" to speak about Shane's World's visit to IU. This would have been the perfect opportunity to launch IU's new publicity program. The benefits of such a campaign are undeniable. First, IU's tolerance and promotion of sex would increase applications dramatically. Second, students interested in gender studies, film production and sex therapy would have a chance to intern with professionals. I know from researching this article that creative writing majors are desperately needed in the pornographic film industry to help with dialogue and plot development. These internships would help bolster resumes by giving students real world experience. Third, porn companies would likely give back to the community by establishing scholarship funds. Shane's World has already done so; the requirements for being selected include "liking porn." I overheard a student laughing at this, but I guess he did not know the Human Sexuality course, which hands out legitimate grades, shows porn on a regular basis. Surely it is good for students to like their subject matter, and there is little difference between the Shane's World scholarship and a journalism scholarship that requires students to "like writing." \nIt is not my intention to cause controversy; I am merely bringing attention to the values IU promotes locally but is ashamed of nationally. When the scandal broke, Brehm and other officials tried to distance the University's reputation as far as possible from the national outcry. The impression they gave the national media was that IU does not support liberated sexual behavior.\nThis hypocrisy could be ignored if it were not for the fact that two students who starred in the porno were suspended. If there had been no cameras, the two students would have been celebrated for exploring their sexuality. While I am not particularly pro-pornography, I could support it in the name of being morally consistent.\nIU's policy on sex can be summed up this way: It is acceptable for faculty to purchase pornography with government funds and show it in class, but wrong for a pornography to be filmed on campus. You can argue classroom pornography is in the interests of higher learning, but the best way to learn is through first hand experience.\nThe University must either support sexual liberty or not. It is hypocritical for IU faculty to act outraged by a pornographic movie filmed on campus when the Kinsey Institute houses one of the largest porno collections on earth. Two IU students paid the price for this ethical vagueness, and who's next is anyone's guess.