An art professor is asking students to pose nude for 'erotic' final

September Morn by Paul Chabas, 1912, oil on canvas.

Image: © Corbis

By Stephanie Buck13 minutes ago

When Ricardo Dominguez, an associate professor at the University of San Diego, reportedly asked his students to pose nude for their final projects of the semester, a parent found out — and wasn't too happy.
As part of the final for Visual Arts 104A: Performing the Self, students must choose a nude "gesture" (labelled "Erotic Self" in the syllabus) and pose for the rest of the class, which was comprised of roughly 15 to 20. Students disrobe and sit in a candlelit room; Dominguez takes his clothes off, too.

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"It bothers me; I'm not sending her to school for this," a mother of a woman who took the class told 10News.

She claims her daughter said that students were told to perform nude or risk a failing grade.

She claims her daughter said that students were told to perform nude or risk a failing grade. Dominguez allegedly informed students of the class expectations on their first day. Some students quit.
"Students always [have] a number of reasons for dropping any class. It's too hard, does not fit their schedule, or they wanted to take another class," he told Mashable. UCSD students have three weeks to drop a class after it has begun.
Students may choose not to get completely naked, however, visual arts department chair Dr. Jordan Crandall said in a statement on Monday. They may "do the gesture in any number of ways without actually having to remove their clothes."
Crandall did not respond to a request for comment.
In a course evaluation provided by Dominguez, student Lisa Korpos, a fourth year senior, wrote:

There were rumors about the 'nude' gesture floating around the art department several weeks before the course had even begun. Additionally, Professor Dominguez discussed the criteria of all the required performances during the first week of the quarter. His expectations were made abundantly clear. The nudity requirement isn't necessarily a literal one. 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.

Korpos did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.
Dominguez has taught the upper division course for 11 years. He said the curriculum has not evolved in that time, and neither students nor parents have expressed concern before now.

The course is not required for graduation.

The course is not required for graduation. Nudity in fine art was popularized in ancient Greece, and has been seen in many sculptures, paintings and other artworks up to the present day. Some were created from the imagination and others by observing a model, often in the nude. Many consider the definition of the nude as fine art on an individual basis, as a matter of subjective taste.
In the past, Dominguez has participated in "virtual sit-ins" in attempts to cripple certain websites, which he views a form of protest under his own Electronic Disturbance Theater. His behaviors are considered acts of electronic civil disobedience.