There's a moment buried in IU's history.
It's a moment the University probably wants to forget. \
A moment when a porn company used a Big Ten university to turn a quick profit. A moment that lives on video for two and a half hours. A moment the residents currently living on the third floor of Wissler Hall in Teter Quadrangle might want to know about, especially if they live across from a bulletin board.
It’s a moment that started on Oct. 3, 2002, and continued into the weekend. The weekend known as “Campus Invasion No. 32.”
That weekend included porn stars, students, and one major university investigation.
In August 2002, the Princeton Review named Indiana University the nation’s No. 1 party school.
Two months later, adult film star Calli Cox and her three female and two male colleagues from a California-based adult film company, Shane Enterprises, told the Indiana Daily Student they visited campus to “party with students from the No. 1 party school.” The adult film stars drank with, gave oral sex to, and even filmed XXX-rated scenes with IU students in areas on and off campus.
More than 100 students appeared in the film, but only 20 to 30 signed waivers allowing the Shane Enterprises’ film crew to use the right to their likeness for the final film.
The University launched their investigation. The IDS ran front page stories on the incident, confirming the porn stars had made their way to the student radio station, then known as WIUS, Teter, and various residences across town.
The crew filmed parties across campus, including one scene at The Roach Motel house on Indiana Avenue. One off-campus party featured a pain contest involving spanking with a Sigma Chi paddle.
It wasn’t the first campus the porn stars invaded. The previous year, Arizona State University made headlines when their executive vice president of student government was filmed in a shower scene at his fraternity with Calli Cox. That video was “Campus Invasion No. 29.”
In the end, the third floor of Teter Wissler and the student radio station were the settings of major scenes in the final film. A national talk show host accused the University of trying to hide the incident. And an adult film company ran with all the publicity the local newspapers could contain.
Dirty doesn’t even begin to cover the situation.
***
The taping began at the student radio station.
WIUS host Neal Taflinger knew what he was getting into when he signed the waiver. All he did was hold a mic and conduct an interview with Calli Cox and her colleague, Belladonna.
Calli Cox contacted Taflinger before the crew’s visit to Bloomington. Taflinger cleared Shane Enterprises’ visit to the WIUS studios with the student radio board and decided not to air the show live so he could control the content.
He ended up with more than 30 minutes on tape of talking, laughing, gurgling, slurping, and other various noises.
“A porn production company doesn’t call you to do a casual, low-key interview one-on-one about how they got into the industry,” Taflinger said in a recent interview. “I did my best to get what I needed from the situation — as in good answers to real questions.”
“Man, this is degenerating very fast,” Taflinger said in the film, less than 10 seconds into the scene filmed at WIUS. “I wanted to ask you guys, how exactly did you guys get involved …”
There was a pause. Belladonna lifted up her shirt, pulled down her bra and grabbed her breast, and started shaking it in Taflinger’s face.
“…with adult film,” Taflinger concluded.
Taflinger asked Calli Cox what the film involved. Calli Cox’s response was interaction.
The two female porn stars sat on Taflinger’s lap with their shirts raised, their breasts exposed.
“Lock up your children,” Taflinger said in the final version of “Campus Invasion No. 32.” “We’ve got porn stars in the studio.”
But soon, Calli Cox and Belladonna seemed to get bored with the college student who was more focused on his work. They moved onto oral sex with another porn star in their film crew.
“They tried to sprawl out into various parts of the WIUS mansion and I put a stop to that,” Taflinger said. “I wasn’t going to play host to a formal scene shoot for them. At that point, it was kind of, ‘Thanks for coming in guys, but you need to go.’”
***
The filming continued at Teter Quad. After the crew picked up a student near the wooden bridges by Ballantine Hall, the student, a resident of Teter Wissler, led the film crew back to his dorm. The next thing the other students knew, there were porn stars on their floor.
“I definitely think we’re going to do some damage at this school,” a female porn star said. “They’re going to be walking around for decades talking about how porn stars did bad, bad things in their rooms.”
The Teter resident received oral sex from the female porn star. On the floor were two brown bags and two cups of dipping sauce.
Then-freshman Adam Brown told the IDS he didn’t know the porn crew. All he knew was they had followed one of the other students on his floor back to the Central neighborhood after class.
“College is crazy,” Brown said.
Daylight streamed in through the blinds of another Teter Wissler room. There were desktop computers. A drab-looking carpet. A bean bag. Two bunkbeds that were positioned into an L-shape. A wooden-armed, blue-cushioned chair that had a slight rock.
“So, here we are in somebody’s dorm,” Mr. Marcus, one of the male porn stars, said as he received oral sex from Calli Cox.
The sex between Calli Cox, a former eighth grade English teacher, and her colleagues couldn’t be contained within the dorm room’s cinderblock walls.
It spilled into the hallway and the bathroom. A Shane Enterprises member in a bear suit, known as Drunky the Bear, appeared. Students looked on.
Then-freshman Danny Gothelf told the IDS the situation was awkward.
“Being the age that we are, we’re not going to go up to our head RA and say ‘Hey, there are porn stars in our bathroom’,” Gothelf said.
The resident assistant wasn’t on the floor at the time, but Cedric Harris, Teter’s residence manager, learned of the crew’s filming.
On Oct. 3, Harris filed a report. Twenty days later, the University opened their investigation after they said they read an original story published in the Oct. 22, 2002, edition of the IDS.
In the next two months, the response to Shane Enterprises from then-IU spokesperson Jane Jankowski and the rest of the university administration became clear: don’t come back.
The University had IU’s Advanced Research and Technology Institute send a letter prohibiting the adult film company from future visits.
“If Shane had properly sought permission for this video in advance pursuant to University policy, rest assured that permission would not have been granted,” the letter said, as published in the IDS. “This letter shall serve as formal notice prohibiting any future trespass of University property by any person on your organization’s behalf.”
During that time, the University began investigating what would happen to the students involved in the residence hall, WIUS, and the various residences across campus that opened their door to the adult film crew.
According to the IU Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct, the University is allowed to discipline a student for “lewd, indecent or obscene conduction, or actions that endanger the university community or the academic process.”
The University could also discipline students for off-campus misconduct if they deemed the activity “to undermine integrity of the educational process.”
The University sent a letter to the California-based adult film company to demand that IU’s logo or symbols not be referenced in any connection with the film.
Former dean of students Dick McKaig began receiving questions about the value of an IU degree.
“IU has 38,000 students and with that, it has 38,000 different value systems,” McKaig said. “It is hard to categorize 38,000 students based on the actions of just a few.”
***
IU’s former spokesperson Jane Jankowski called it an “unfortunate situation.”
In early November, Jankowski watched “Campus Invasion No. 32” to check for the appearance of IU logos and campus signs in the film.
In early December 2002, the University handed the investigation to the IU Police Department. Anticipation was also growing for the release of the film, which was to come out on Dec. 17. A local adult film store already had a waiting list.
By Dec. 9, the University was looking at charging two students for their involvement with the film. The students’ names were never released but it was alleged that one opened the door to Teter for the film crew and the other participated in sexual acts in a public area.
Three days later, Shane Enterprises made the front page of the IDS again. The company wanted to give a scholarship to an IU student who enjoyed porn. The money would come from the proceeds of “Campus Invasion No. 32.” The company was still working out the details at the time.
“It just makes sense to do this because we market toward the college crowd,” Cox said.
The first scholarship recipient was never reported.
***
It hit the shelves on Dec. 17, 2002. “Campus Invasion No. 32” was released for $49.99 on VHS. After one month, one of Bloomington’s adult stores had sold more than 200 copies. Richard Roeper critiqued the film. Bill O’Reilly’s “O’Reilly Factor” called the administration “out of touch” for not investigating the incident sooner.
***
Nine years later, IU students still talk about an urban legend that porn stars did “bad, bad things” in dorm rooms.
Cedric Harris, the former Teter Residential Manager, is now the Associate Director for Residential Operations.
Although it’s been nearly a decade since the incident, Harris remarked that it was something he wished students would just forget. Then he walked away to talk with his boss.
“My
boss said to say ‘No comment’,” Harris said to an interview request about that
2002 weekend. “What was
written about it was written at that time.”
Former IU spokesperson Jane Jankowski is now Governor Mitch Daniels’ press secretary.
Former dean of students Dick McKaig has since retired from his position.
McKaig said he thinks Shane Enterprises chose to film at IU for the publicity of a No. 1 party school.
“That’s what everybody presumed was the case, that they were simply in the business of making money, and Indiana University, because of that ranking, had a certain visibility that they were able to capitalize on,” McKaig said. “I didn’t know of any other connection that would have drawn them to Bloomington.”
Calli Cox, also known as Kristy Jo Connelly off-camera, appeared in her last adult film in 2006.
WIUS host Neal Taflinger now works as a communications director in Indianapolis.
The two students who faced expulsion were alleged to have both left IU. Former reporters said that it was rumored one student withdrew from school, and the other student left for a career in the pornography industry.
The dorm rooms on the third floor of Teter Wissler are still in use.
Today, this moment still won’t hide. It’s still whispered about on campus. A moment that Shane Enterprises profited from for months. A moment that can be found at Plan 9 Film Emporium to rent for only $3. A moment that might push the residents currently living in one of the 35 rooms on the third floor of Teter Wissler into buying a black light.
