College Teen Pledges

College Teen Pledges
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They're cool with it ... and furious at the media for how their professor has been portrayed.
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You probably wear sweatpants to finals. Meanwhile, several art students at University of California, San Diego have a very specific finals dress code: their birthday suits. But get your mind out of the gutter -- there's absolutely nothing sexual about it.
For the class "Visual Arts 104A: Performing the Self," professor Ricardo Dominguez asks students to perform a nude gesture, called their "erotic self," as part of their final. The course's official description says it uses "autobiography, dream, confession, fantasy, or other means to invent one's self in a new way." Performing naked is part of that, and if students don't participate, they risk failing the course entirely -- though Dominguez says alternative assignments are possible.
"Nudity has been and is a core part of the history of performance art/body art from the 20th century to now ... If students are to learn about performance art as practitioners, this history of the medium is crucial for them to experience in a direct way," Dominguez wrote to MTV News in an email. "It is not just a matter of reading about it or viewing slides."
One student's mom was very, very concerned at this curriculum, ABC affiliate 10News reported Saturday (May 9). She claimed her daughter wasn't aware of the nudity assignment at the start of the course, and her outrage became a viral news story.
"It bothers me, I'm not sending her to school for this," the mother anonymously told 10News . "To blanket say you must be naked in order to pass my class... It makes me sick to my stomach."
MTV News went straight to the source -- the class's professor and several of his students -- to get the stripped-down (sorry) truth.
Students confirm they knew about the nudity assignment in advance.
Brooke Kesinger, Lisa Korpos and Vincent Wesley Lin, all seniors in Dominguez's class, tell us they were fully aware of the course's nudity component at the beginning of the semester, if not earlier. It was also included on the syllabus.
"There were rumors about the 'nude' gesture floating around the art department several weeks before the course had even begun ... Professor Dominguez discussed the criteria of all the required performances during the first week of the quarter," Korpos wrote in an email. "His expectations were made abundantly clear ... I knew what I was signing up for."
Dominguez has taught at UCSD since 2004. This performance class has been around for over a decade, but no student has ever issued a complaint about the final assignment.
Not cool with dropping your pants? No prob. The class is 100% optional.
On Monday (May 11), Dr. Jordan Crandall, Chair of the Visual Arts Department at UCSD, clarified in a statement to 10News , "Removing your clothes is not required in this class. The course is not required for graduation." UCSD art students who aren't comfortable with Dominguez's class can opt to take a different upper division course to fulfill the same credit requirements for their major.
In his email to us, Dominguez wrote that he offers an alternative assignment for the "erotic self" gesture in case a student who chooses to take his class isn't comfortable stripping down: "I have always been willing to work with students to help them navigate the process, during my office hours and in the context of the class. Our advising team is also very willing to discuss the options for doing the performance without having to be actually nude/naked."
Dominguez didn't give us specific details about the alternative assignment -- one of his students wrote that she never heard him mention the possibility of an alternative assignment in class -- but the course is about more than just being naked, say both the professor and his students.
"[The] nudity requirement isn't necessarily a literal one," Korpos wrote. "Nudity can refer to
vulnerability -- an expression of one's most honest self. Clothes can most certainly stay on. Some students choose to interpret nakedness literally, but it's certainly not forced upon them."
For a different assignment, Korpos explained, "All 15 of us willingly blindfolded ourselves, and we sat huddled together, sharing these hauntingly honest tidbits of our respective histories. Each confession was more stirring or powerful than the one before. ... I think it may have been the most awe-inspiring 10 minutes I’ve ever spent on campus."
Many of the course's students are actually used to performing naked.
In order to take Dominguez's class, they had to complete a prerequisite course that also included nudity in its syllabus.
"The class ['Introduction to Art-Making: Motion and Time-Based'] is an intro class to performance," Lin explained. "My particular TA pushed us very hard to make powerful gestures, and so I had been nude twice in my class before. It in fact helped me to be more comfortable and 'out' with my sexuality as a gay male."
But not every student at the school is thrilled about the "erotic self" assignment. Amanda Fitzmorris, chair of the College Republicans at UCSD, spoke to Fox and Friends about her concerns on Tuesday (May 12).
"We're a publicly funded institution and I believe that the taxpayers should have a say of some sort over this kind of adult-themed course," Fitzmorris said. She also mentioned that Dominguez himself participates in the final, too -- meaning he is naked alongside his students.
Yes, the professor is naked, too...
Which sounds weird AF, though one student in the class says it would be even weirder if he weren't naked.
"I think it's only fair that he intends to put himself through the same potential awkwardness or discomfort that he's asking of his students," Korpos wrote. "There are about 15 of us, so it would be strange if he were the only one to choose to remain clothed."
...but there's (probably) nothing illegal about this.
We asked Daniel Perlman , a criminal defense attorney based in California, to break down the legal implications of the course and its nudity requirement.
"From a criminal perspective, a lewd act ... would require that the action taken was for sexual gratification, meaning that this teacher was telling these students to take off their clothes because it satisfied some sexual desire on his part," Perlman explained over the phone. "It really doesn’t seem like that."
"This is not a sexual thing," Kesinger, one of the students, tells us. "This is a natural thing. So much of performance art is done in the nude, so to restrict yourself, to restrict your canvas of art making, is to sell yourself short of what may be needed to get a point across to an audience."
The only way Dominguez's course could cross into criminal territory, Perlman said, would be if a minor under the age of 18 -- say, a freshman who graduated high school early -- were naked in front of their older peers. But Kesinger confirmed that freshmen cannot take the course unless they receive a special prerequisite waiver from UCSD's Visual Arts Department; it's an advanced course intended for upperclassmen.
“I just don’t see the criminal angle here," Perlman said. "I would be very surprised if anything criminal was even investigated in this."
Clothes on or off, Dominguez's students believe the course inspires confidence.
All of the students we interviewed from the class say they've gained artistic experience both professionally and personally thanks to the unique curriculum.
"There's a lot of media focus on the 'nude' gesture, but nobody has slowed down for even a moment to consider what else we have been doing," Korpos wrote. "Every single student came out of that class with a deep sense of empathy, understanding, and care for their fellow classmates."
© 2022 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. MTV, EMA and all related titles, logos and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.

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