The Sexuality class controversy has escalated to a National thing, embarassing Cal's fragile reputation even further. Apparently it's been in both the NY and LA Times, along with the NBC Nightly News and local news outlets throughout the country. The usual wave of 'Berkeley is full of yuppie morons' letters has flooded the Daily Cal's opinion page.

I don't mind the usual Berkeley controversy, but I do mind an imaginary one. And this one is completely imaginary, based on the lazy reporting of writer Brittany Adams. (This is a picture of her midriff, by the way. She posed for the Daily Cal's REview section.) My insiders at the Daily Cal let me know they were considering printing up to three paragraphs worth of corrections. They settled for an Ombudsman report sometime next week.

So it's up to Kevin! to debunk this silly game.

The criticism of the Sexuality Class is based on three false conclusions.

1. The Orgies were held as part of the class curriculum.
2. Students received class credit for Orgies.
3. The Sexuality Classes are an integral part of the course curriculum.

Uno: Orgies held as part of the curriculum.

Untrue! Adams' wrote this:

A party organized for the male sexuality class was held in the home of some of the course's instructors after the class's year-end outing to a strip club last semester. There, some of the students engaged in sexual activity.

The key words here are 'organized for the male sexuality class,' which sound like the Orgy was organized 'for' the class, instead of 'by members of the class.'

In a letter to the Daily Cal, one of the instructors emphasized 'we also arrange parties outside of class' That's right: Outside of class.

Adams' compounds the error by writing

A party organized for the male sexuality class was held in the home of some of the course's instructors after the class's year-end outing to a strip club last semester. There, some of the students engaged in sexual activity.

That's all true, but somehow the 'year-end' part got dropped from the rest of the article. The Instructor clarified: 'We do have an end of the semester party where we go out to a strip club. '

How can this be part of the class when the semester has ended? Classes are over! The oversexed people who attended these things arranged something after class. Considering the level of hormones floating around, I'm surprised they managed to hold on until after the semester has finished off. To reiterate: student sexual exploits were outside the class, and they received no credit for them.

The accusation that the general course content is stupid holds no water. First off, why now? The class has been going on for over five years. It's been no secret that along with more typical stuff like class discussion of human sexuality and guest speakers there's the ocassional learning trip to a Strip Club. I've heard no complaints about the rest of the content, so why the outcry over this one, small, facet? Would a course on Marine Mammals be invalidated if we got to spend a day petting dolphins? If the naysayers were arguing that the inclusion of strip clubs demeans the rest of the material, that's fine. But they're arguing that the strip clubs invalidates the whole class, which there's no proof for.

Part of the problem is that Adams didn't specify what the course content is, making it appear the crux of the course was vapid expressions of personal sexuality. Actually, it involves

'The male sexuality class is a robust course covering a universe of topics, from masturbation and sex toys to pornography and safe sex. The class features an extensive reader, a plenitude of guest speakers (including Carol Queen, Cleo Du Bois, and James Green), and emotional in-class discussion.'

A path towards a meaningful education? Probably not. An interesting supplemental class? Certainly. And that's all anyone's ever claimed it to be.

And let me put the class in perspective compared to the rest of Cal. It's meaningless. No one takes DeCal courses for the credit; they take it for the experience. These classes frequently involve as much hard work as a typical 3-4 unit class, while only granting a meaningless 1-2 units. (I'm taking 20 this semester.) The only classes that are meaningful for units are Breadth Requirements, Major requirements, and Reading and Writing Requirements. DeCals are taken for love of the material.

A pox on you, Brittany Adams! Your salacious reporting and lazy construction of events has confused us all. And a pox on you, mainstream news, for failing to recognize the triviality of this story.

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