How much control over your behavior outside the classroom should a university really have? We can all agree that behavior off campus should have no effect on a student’s standing with the university, but what if that student lives in a dorm? Should students be the ones to decide the rules or does the university have the right to establish rules and punish students if they are broken? These questions have recently come to light at Indiana University, where school officials have opened a serious investigation into the events that occurred when an adult film crew was invited into a campus dorm. Severe consequences are likely for the few students who participated in the filming in the dorms, but it is sure that nothing will be done to the many students who participated in the filming off campus. What exactly happened?
Here are the facts: On Oct. 3, two males and four females working for the California-based pornographic Web site Shane’s World arrived in Bloomington, Ind., to compile three days of footage of Indiana University students for an adult movie called “Campus Invasion.” Three weeks before they arrived, crewmembers contacted a number of campus organizations from fraternities to bowling teams to encourage student participation and schedule appointments for filming at off-campus locations. On their first day in town, Calli Cox, an adult film actress who is featured in the movie, and her cameraman were invited into Teter Dorm by a student to film. The footage in the dorm includes 20 to 30 Indiana University students participating in sexual acts with Cox. They left at the request of a resident manager and were in the dorm for no more than three hours, attempting no other shots on campus.
A similar problem has plagued another school recently. At Arizona State University, a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity and executive vice president of Associated Students of ASU is the subject of an investigation that is likely to lead to his expulsion from the school. He was a part of a shower scene with two adult film stars in the September 2001 production “Shane’s World No. 29: Frat Row Scavenger Hunt 3.” Some might even consider these instances a warning for State students who are also at risk of such temptations. On Nov. 7, the “Girls Gone Wild” bus actually stopped in Starkville. An employee of a popular bar in town recently confirmed that the crew left shortly after their arrival when city officials voiced that it would be the best thing for them to leave.
So, scandals similar to those that plagued Indiana University and Arizona State University could be a problem for students even in Starkville. This causes me to wonder how deep into the personal lives of students a university can actually go. The students at Indiana University voluntarily participated in filming in the privacy of a dorm room. The boys at Arizona State University also participated in the privacy of their fraternity houses. None of the students behaved crudely in public, caused harm to another person or even caused harm to themselves. Their behavior was a threat only to the conservative and strict eyes of public-minded officials, yet they are now under the threat of expulsion. What exactly was their crime? Nothing they did was illegal-maybe immoral to some, but not illegal. The responsibilities of a university do not extend beyond the bounds of an education.
I hope that a State student will never have to suffer violations of privacy like those suffered by the Indiana and Arizona State University students. Also, I couldn’t help but wonder what MSU’s policy on the privacy of students might be, and in the Code of Student Conduct I found: “Mississippi State University will not police the personal lives of students on or off campus or invade their privacy by spying or intrusive searches.” That’s respectable.
Katherine Davis is a freshman English major.