Warning About Sexy Films in Class Opposed

Students complained about sexually graphic material shown in University of Iowa classrooms. Now faculty members are complaining that an order to warn students about steamy subjects is censorship.

The Iowa Board of Regents, which oversees the University of Iowa, imposed a policy last month requiring teachers to tell students when they are about to see “explicit representations of human sexual acts.”

The policy stems from complaints over a film shown in a German class in September, 1991. The movie, “Taxi zum Klo,” or “Taxi to the Bathroom,” was billed as an erotic comedy and a landmark in gay filmmaking.

Complaints from students, parents, alumni and legislators flooded the school, forcing university President Hunter Rawlings to issue a public apology.

Administrators told faculty in the College of Liberal Arts to be aware of students’ sensibilities and tell them ahead of time about any material that might be objectionable.

Then in February, art teaching assistant Megan O’Connell showed a local artists’ eight-minute video to 160 students at her weekly colloquium. The video contained three scenes, totaling about 15 seconds, of men engaging in oral sex.

That’s when the regents ordered the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa to establish policies to warn students.

“We don’t like it,” Rawlings said of the policy. “It gives us . . . a certain uniqueness in American higher education that I think none of us savors.”

The policy is unsound, awkward and an embarrassment to the school, said Robert O’Neil, founding director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression at the University of Virginia.

“I don’t think there’s any question that it reflects a kind of outlook, a climate which is not as sympathetic to academic freedom and free inquiry as Iowa’s traditions would suggest,” O’Neil said.

Regents’ President Marvin Berenstein said the policy is really nothing more than a courtesy to students. The warnings are given at the discretion of teachers.

Some critics accuse the regents of being homophobic and restricting academic freedom.

“There are two bona fide contentions, but I also maintain that we are trying to protect academic freedom--always were, always have been,” said Berenstein. “It’s never been an issue about whether or not they can show the movies--as long as they give the warning. It never was a homophobic issue.”

Faculty members said students are expected to look at a syllabus so they know what they are getting into when they enroll for a class.