While having lunch with the Director of the Study Abroad Office this week, she and I started having a great conversation about diversity on campus and the role that it plays for incoming and new students. She explained that a good friend of hers, the Director of Allen Hall (a Living-Learning Community), encourages and embraces diversity in all forms and is constantly advocating and researching, especially within her hall with all of her students. This coming Sunday she is hosting an event where Annie Sprinkle, an ex- pornstar and prostitute, is coming to speak to the residence of Allen Hall about her journey as a pornstar/prostitute to a now "ecosexual" (where she is in an intimate relationship with the Earth).
During lunch, we were talking about whether this is an educational experience for the students, or if the director, and the University, are over stepping their bounds. Is this diversity? Are we incorporating different cultures and experiences in hopes to help our students develop by providing this experience? Looking at Allen Hall's upcoming event calendar I see the likes of "Black History Month: Widows of MLK and Malcolm X" and "Bollywood Night", both of which are educational opportunities to teach students about other experiences and cultures, but seeing Annie Sprinkle's event amongst them seems to be out of place, or does it?
I wanted to share this with the class to see what your thoughts are in regards to diversity in higher education and how it relates to educating our students about diversity. Is the University of Illinois pushing the limit?
Annie Sprinkle's Website
Allen Hall Facebook Event Post
I think this presentation absolutely counts toward building diversity, and I do not think that her speech is pushing a limit at all.
ReplyDeleteMost of us want students to be exposed to new ideas in college, even the ones that might be unpopular or uncommon. It is important for everyone -- not only students --to learn about other people and get a sense of the world through different perspectives. As we have seen again and again in our reading, being exposed to new ideas and new people can help develop cognitive ability, not to mention empathy and compassion.
Also, the director and university would be stepping over their bounds if they tried to prevent anyone with an unusual perspective from speaking on campus. Who would get to make that judgement? Where does that authority stop? Students should be allowed to hear new ideas and decide for themselves whether they choose to believe them; at the very least, they can come to understand a person's motives instead of simply dismissing the person because she isn't "normal" (whatever that means). This experience can teach students to think about other people, consider their perspectives, and reflect on their own values and beliefs (this, of course, can take years, but I believe that a learning experience that develops over a longer term might be more valuable than a short-term experience).
Exposing students to people, ideas, and lifestyles that are different from their own should be, I think, a goal of the college experience. I do not think we can truly be diverse and have meaningful conversations and growth if anyone or any idea is excluded. I would argue, too, that ideas that are outside of the mainstream are more valuable than the ones we have already collectively decided are "normal."
Even the national media got involved:
ReplyDeletehttp://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/09/16913843-porn-star-teaches-sex-seminar-at-the-university-of-illinois?lite&ocid=msnhp&pos=5
Recent times when net has so often gossip mongering and clog; your proportion really refreshes me.
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