Keep the Sex R-Rated, N.Y.U. Tells Film Students

In October, a film student at New York University pitched an idea for her video-making class: a four-minute portrayal of the contrast between unbridled human lust and banal everyday behavior.

Sounds like a fair project to me. Washing dishes and bumping uglies. Wouldn't do well on the porn circuit but this is an "art" project so go for it.

Her professor approved. The student, Paula Carmicino, found two actor friends willing to have sex on camera in front of the class.

WHAT?! Her project was to tape amateur porn in the classroom? Try somebody's apartment or a seedy hotel. And the professor was okay with this? Thought it was a good idea? WTF?

The other students expressed their support.

Well no shit. Go into any college classroom and poll them on whether they'd rather have lecture or watch a live sex show.

But then the professor thought he should double-check with the administration, which immediately pulled the plug on the project.

At least he showed a little common sense. Probably saved his job right there.

The matter has raised a mini-tempest on campus. Yesterday, the school newspaper, The Washington Square News, published a front-page article about it, as well as an editorial critical of the administration.

Why? Is tuition supposed to exempt students from common torts and misdemeanors? Is the holy liberal mantra supposed to shield the school from the law? It is not legal to tape a live sex show with an audience in a public place. NYU receives federal and state funding. They must appease the regents and alumni. Are there people who seriously think that the school should have allowed a porn movie to be made on their grounds?

Ms. Carmicino and Professor de Jesus say the issue raises far-reaching questions of censorship and academic and artistic freedom.

Bullshit. It raises questions about the moral perceptions of Carmicino and de Jesus and whether they have the common sense to recognize appropriate locations and situations for erotic filming.

"Someone give me a list of universities that allow sex acts in the classroom," Mr. Pierce [a spokesman for the Tisch School] said. "We're not going to be the first."

Give Mr. Pierce a cookie. And a raise.

Christopher Dunn, an associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said there was no First Amendment issue involved because the university is a private institution.

Nanny nanny boo boo.

Conversations with several Tisch students sympathetic to Ms. Carmicino's efforts made it clear that explicit content in classroom work was not unusual. Vera Itkin, 20, a sophomore, said that one film in a class contained graphic secondhand footage from a pornographic movie and that two scripts called for hard-core sex scenes, one with dead people.

Lisa Estrin, 19, a sophomore, said she made a film showing simulated sex between two stuffed toys, Minnie Mouse and Lamb Chop.

What the hell class is this? I'm going back to college!