At the center of NU's sex storm (The wonky, bespectacled professor....)

Chicago Tribune ^ | March 3, 2011 | Mary Schmich

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Professor J. Michael Bailey takes full responsibility for the live sex act.

He isn't ready, however, to express regret.

"If I decide to say I shouldn't have done this," he said Thursday, sitting in his sex research lab at Northwestern University, "it will be because this could have been avoided, not because anybody has been harmed by it."

Here in the sex lab — an unsexy little space crammed with computers, chairs and a wobbly round table — the world seemed quiet, wonky, normal, not so different from the bespectacled professor Bailey.

[snip]

Bailey said the people he knows well have been supportive these past couple of days. The only colleagues who have mentioned it have been kind, though some disagreed with his choice on that fateful Monday.

His ex-wife e-mailed to apologize for giving his phone number to a reporter. His 26-year-old son left a voice mail.

He leaned into his laptop and read an e-mail from his daughter: "Dad, I'm so sorry for everything that's happened. Are you OK?"

He figures it's time to call his mother in Texas.

"I suppose I should see if she knows and if she's worried."

The human sexuality course will conclude with next week's final. Bailey doesn't foresee a reprise of the power saw demonstration in future classes.

"If I had to bet, I would bet I will not be doing this again," he said, "either because of my decision or someone else's. And that's fine. It's not like I think this is a necessary part of understanding kinky people."

And in the spring, he will teach nothing sexier than statistics.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Background:

"The students seemed really intrigued,” says Faith Kroll, with her fiance, Jim Marcus,..........

Northwestern University defends after-class live sex demonstration [excerpt] ....The optional, non-credit demo followed psychology Prof. John Michael Bailey’s sexuality class. Nearly 600 students are in Bailey’s class this quarter, and most didn’t stick around for the after-class show, which featured four members of Chicago’s fetish community describing “BDSM,” or bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.

“I didn’t expect to see a live sex show,” said Justin Smith, 21, a senior economics and political science major who was in the after-class session. “We were told we were going to have some people talk to us about the fetish world and kink.”......

Northwestern to investigate controversial sex demonstration [excerpt]...... "At issue is whether the demonstration is protected by the long-standing principle of academic freedom that allows faculty to teach controversial subjects — from religious views to denial of the Holocaust. Questions center on whether the demonstration offered any educational value.

In a prepared statement Wednesday, Bailey acknowledged hesitating before allowing the couple to perform the sex act. He said that he decided to say yes after realizing his "inability to come up with a legitimate reason why students should not be able to watch such a demonstration.".....[end excerpt]

[padre35]

And they are paying how much for this sort of “education”?

[Cincinatus' Wife]

You're darn right they are.

I wonder how many of the 600 in his class this semester are taking any advanced science or math classes.

On a related matter: --- Walker's Budget Pulls State Funded Birth Control "Madison, Wis. (Learfield) - Wisconsin health insurers would no longer have to pay for birth control under Governor Scott Walker’s proposed new state budget. The Republican Walker wants to un-do the requirement approved two years ago by former Governor Jim Doyle. Democrats had tried for over 10 years to make insurance cover birth control prescriptions. And they were finally able to do it when they had control of the entire Legislature and the governor’s office the past two years. Planned Parenthood and various public health groups supported the measure, which took effect last year. Catholic and pro-lifers opposed it."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

...are paying how much....

Not sure (misread your question). But they're "paying" by time taken up in this pursuit of dumbed-down higher education. It's like a playground for dysfunction.

[dr_lew]

the world seemed quiet, wonky, normal, not so different from the bespectacled professor Bailey.

Possibly one of the biggest lies ever told in the history of the earth.

[marsh2]

I took a psych class like that. No live sex, but we did get to talk to prostitutes.

[haroldeveryman]

“At issue is whether the demonstration is protected by the long-standing principle of academic freedom that allows faculty to teach controversial subjects”

Sure, but shouldn’t they have a cabaret license?

[dixiechick2000]

I’m not sure about how much tuition is either, but it’s a private university..........so they are paying through the ying yang.

Community college is looking better and better every day.

When my daughter couldn’t get the physics class she needed at her university, she went to the local community college for that course. It was taught by a professional physicist, and he was the best physics teacher she’s ever had.

Better than anything else, he is a conservative.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Community college is looking better and better every day.

The idea that you must go into HUGE debt to be "educated" and pay back thousands of dollars in student loans (because no one should actually have to work to put themselves through school -- lordy they might miss one of these after hour demonstrations) is being discredited.

Tenure is another problem we are living with in education. I just was reminded of this avowed Marxist at the College of the Mainland in Texas City (between Houston and Galveston) and his views after reading his quote this morning in the Houston Chronicle about a Texas illegal immigration bill and his quote about wishing TX hadn't positioned itself with AZ.

[dagogo redux]

What a pile of crap college has turned into. Better for the country if every teen was either enlisted in the military, entered into a vocational school or apprenticeship, or put to work at a full time job. Years later, when they are mature enough to benefit from college, they can go back.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

What a pile of crap college has turned into.

It's worse than crap. It's destroying the future of our way of life.

This is the what students are being taught in U.S. schools by the likes of Prof David Smith (Post #9).

Democratic Socialists of America

Their website banner reads:

"Democratic Socialists believe that both the economy and society should be run democratically—to meet public needs, not to make profits for a few. To achieve a more just society, many structures of our government and economy must be radically transformed through greater economic and social democracy so that ordinary Americans can participate in the many decisions that affect our lives."

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Washington Times: The same behavior that cost Brandon Davies the rest of his basketball season at Brigham Young University might have earned him an “A” at Northwestern.

[SpaceBar]

Some news stories are so beyond the pale I find myself wondering if a secret memo issued by the DNC was sent out with instructions to do things so depraved that the muslim world will (justifiably) loathe us with every fiber of their being.

[mmercier]

I kind of got lost at the power saw thing there...

Not wanting to follow the link, I am assuming some genius fitted a dildo onto a sawzall or something and demonstrated it on the cutest female or queer in the class room...

What a strange world.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Parents need to see what’s happening and if this “professor’s” bad judgment gets more of them to pay attention — good.

The Left always overreaches.

Too many people have been silenced into thinking THEY are out of the mainstream of popular culture. Good grief. Time to turn the tables on this culture corruption.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

A 6,000 rpm on a circular saw could certainly put whole new meaning into “Don’t get yer panties in a wad.”

[Cincinatus' Wife]

*****The Chronicle of Higher Education*****

[excerpt] "....First, as the largest American labor action in the new century, the activity in Wisconsin is setting an example for a rebirth of labor sentiment after decades of setbacks. A spontaneous outpouring of community opinion, the Wisconsin upsurge recalls the epoch when unions were not stigmatized as special interests but widely understood to express the interests of ordinary people

Second, this is the first time in the Great Recession that a nationwide protest movement has materialized that does not reflect the agenda of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Not only has the Wisconsin movement emerged spontaneously, from below, in contrast to Fox News's relentless touting of the Tea Parties, but it also represents a rebellion directly opposed to the agenda that tipped the national conversation far to the right in the early years of the Obama administration. This is another kind of populism.

What accounts for so stunning a development? A unique confluence: the crystalline clarity with which the issue of labor rights has been posed in Wisconsin, the stirring international context of democratic revolution, and a strong sense that the proposed change would eviscerate Wisconsin tradition.

In a shrewd move, the two leading Wisconsin public employees' unions, in deference to a climate of fiscal discipline, pledged to accept every pay and benefit cut the governor proposed. That left one disputed point and one only: the right to bargain collectively......"[end excerpt]

[mmercier]

I am incapable at this moment of getting from here to where ever this lunatic thread is going.

[camle]

the encounted lasted three minutes? someone didn’t last too long did he?

[saltus]

Shocking and absurd.

But how did Adam and Eve learn about sex?

I am dumber than most, but I found I needed a lot of education. ‘Natural law’ was totally inadequate.

I think some education is a good thing.