Kansas students, lawmaker debate university sex education class

LAWRENCE, Kan. — On the University of Kansas campus, a scantily

clad student strikes a provocative pose for a photographer.

In a classroom, images of sexual encounters flicker across a

screen as students silently take notes.

As an election year cranks up, with caucuses in neighboring Iowa

on Monday, the candidates are mired in Medicare and the war on

terror. But at this Midwestern school, a human sexuality class and

a sexually charged calendar are the issues.

The separate controversies have spurred students to consider the

boundaries of academic freedom and freedom of expression.

“This has brought a debate to campus that’s worth

having,” says Brian Thomas, a KU senior.

Long considered a left-leaning outpost in a largely right-wing

state, the University of Kansas sparked a statewide political

debate and a national discussion with its support for a popular

class devoted to human sexuality.

The discussion started when a state senator took an interest in

a class she deemed obscene.

For more than two decades, Dennis Dailey, a social welfare

professor who has received frequent accolades from his peers and

his students, has taught a sexuality class that draws

standing-room-only crowds of 500 students.

But when her intern raised questions about the curriculum and

its execution, Republican lawmaker Susan Wagle sought to deny

funding to Dailey’s department.

The course, “Human Sexuality in Everyday Life,”

includes frank discussions about sexual development and expression.

Students view educational films that show homosexual sex and

masturbation.

Wagle registered several complaints about the class, saying that

some materials were obscene and suggesting that the professor used

vulgar “street language” in class. A university

investigation determined that the allegations were without

merit.

But Wagle’s declarations that the class is pornographic

and her attempts to persuade the Legislature to rein in a highly

regarded professor prompted a renewed level of student

activism.

Students jumped into the political fray, collecting petitions,

contacting administrators and making their voices heard. Wagle and

a couple of students turned up on Fox News’ “The

O’Reilly Factor” to respond to the host’s

question: “Perv or prof?”

For most on campus, the answer was obvious.

“If the curriculum doesn’t fit within your beliefs,

speak up, and if you’re really offended, don’t take the

class,” Thomas says. “It’s an elective class, and

it always has been.”

Still, when the state pays the bills, a public university

can’t dismiss lawmakers’ views.

“They fund us, and they have the right to look into what

we’re doing and whether it’s appropriate,” says

Blake Shuart, director of the Student Legislative Awareness Board.

But Shuart and other students say they were concerned about the

prospect of legislators micromanaging class content.

While Wagle’s attempts to freeze state funds failed, she

succeeded in compelling the Legislature to adopt a policy on the

use of explicit materials in the classroom.

Colleen McCain Nelson
The Dallas Morning News
(KRT)

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