LJWorld.com / 'Teach-in' espouses academic freedom

Archive for Thursday, May 15, 2003

May 15, 2003

State Sen. Susan Wagle, R-Wichita, has said the videos that Kansas University professor Dennis Dailey screened in his human sexuality class were obscene because they showed real people performing real sex acts.

John Hoopes has a different view. Addressing a "teach-in" on academic freedom Wednesday at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, 1204 Oread Ave., Hoopes showed a series of squirm-inducing slides of all-white crowds gathered for lynchings in the early 1900s.

Clearly the images are explicit and the acts they depict are of the "utmost obscenity," he said. But, he added, "Explicit material is not obscene when it's used to educate."

Hoopes, a KU associate professor of anthropology, said there was little to stop Wagle's efforts to censure Dailey from spreading.

"It's inappropriate," he said, "that Sen. Wagle is using her office to protest the teaching of love instead of protesting the teaching of hate."

About 20 people, a mix of students, faculty and passers-by, attended the "teach-in" sponsored by more than a dozen groups, including Men Can Stop Rape, KU Greens, Douglas County American Civil Liberties Union and Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice.

Dailey did not attend the meeting. Other speakers in attendance:

l Rep. Paul Davis, D-Lawrence, who warned that "the rest of the Legislature" often considered Lawrence and KU to be "a little strange sometimes."

Christine Robinson begins the "teach-in" at Ecumenical Christian Ministries. Wednesday's teach-in featured discussion about academic freedom in classes taught at Kansas University.

But Wagle's attacks on Dailey, he said, showed "extreme disdain and disrespect" to KU.

l Rick Spano, an associate professor of social welfare and a colleague of Dailey's, predicted Wagle's following would wane as "she will eventually step over the line and won't be tolerated."

l Charlene Muehlenhard, a women's studies and psychology professor, chided Wagle for wanting to protect women in Dailey's class from being exposed to explicit material.

"This sense of paternalism does not advance women's rights," she said.

To counteract Wagle's accusations, students in Dailey's class have launched a Web site,www.waglelies.com.