Northwestern won’t offer sexuality class next year

The head of Northwestern University’s psychology department said Monday the school will not offer a human sexuality class in the next academic year in the wake of the controversy stemming from a sex toy demonstration after class.

Psychology department chairman Dan McAdams said Professor J. Michael Bailey will not teach the class next year and that no other faculty member is qualified to teach the subject.

“I learned a week or two ago that they had decided to cancel the course for next year,” McAdams told the Chicago Tribune. “The decision was made higher up than me at the central administration level.”

Bailey did not immediately return calls for comment on the university’s decision.

On Feb. 21, after a class on human sexuality, Bailey invited students to stay for a discussion of sexual fetishes. He repeatedly warned that it would be graphic. The discussion included a woman who stripped and allowed her partner to use a sex toy on her.

About 100 students attended the after-class, optional seminar on fetishes.

Bailey, a popular professor who teaches what some students have said is one of the university’s most popular classes, often ends sessions with an invitation for students to stay after regularly scheduled lectures to hear from sex therapists, swingers, transgender women and others.

After the February session became known publicly, Bailey said he had never before allowed something like that and would never allow it again.

“Courses in human sexuality are offered in a variety of academic departments in other universities, and Northwestern is reviewing how such a course best fits into the university’s curriculum,” said Northwestern spokesman Alan Cubbage. “At Northwestern University, the dean of a college has the right and responsibility to determine course assignments.”

Initially, Northwestern defended the demonstration. Then-President Morton Schapiro said he was troubled and disappointed by the incident and promised an investigation. Schapiro recently said that with the privilege of academic freedom, professors also have to act responsibly.

Many alumni and parents also condemned the demonstration.

At the time the issue was generating controversy, Bailey said critics did not made a compelling case. He said he would give them an “F” if he were grading their arguments.

“Offense and anger are not arguments,” he wrote. “But I remain open to hearing and reading good arguments.”