Baltimore Sun

Students at state universities, upset that a screening of a pornographic movie at the University of Maryland, College Park, was canceled, are fighting back: They are organizing their own screenings of the hard-core film as a gesture of protest.

College Park students have reserved an on-campus facility to show the film Monday night, while students at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said they hope to show the XXX-marketed film, Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge, next week but did not yet have details.

“There probably isn’t a space on campus that can hold the amount of students who would come out. This has spread like wildfire,” said Kenton Stalder, a College Park junior who is organizing the screening. He is inviting professors to moderate a discussion before the film on the free speech issues involved.

“We’re trying to be really careful with how we present it because it’s such a contentious issue,” Stalder said. “We want to have the faculty behind us and have the message shaped in a way the administration can embrace it instead of having it squashed.”

A sophomore at UMBC, Paula McCusker, said she contacted the film’s distributor, Digital Playground, and received a license to show it. She said students were “outraged and would like in some way to make a statement to express that we are disappointed in the College Park administration” for canceling the movie.

Officials pulled the plug Thursday after state lawmakers threatened to withhold funding otherwise. It was originally scheduled to be shown at midnight Saturday in the College Park student union. Sen. Andrew P. Harris, who led the opposition, said he would object if students used university facilities for the new screenings.

Harris, a Republican of Baltimore and Harford counties, said he expected the universities to block on-campus pornography screenings unless they are in an academic context. “If they want to press the issue with presenting pornography for fun and entertainment in a university facility, with explicit approval of the university, then they would have to deal with that in future budgets,” he said.

It was unclear how the universities would respond to the student-organized screenings. A spokesman for College Park did not respond to a request for comment. A UMBC spokesman said it would be premature to comment before the university had more information.

WBAL.com

Baltimore County State Senator Andy Harris, who sponsored the amendment threatening the university’s funding, said he withdrew the amendment after university cancelled the screening.

Harris told WBAL’s Bruce Elliott Show that he may bring back the amendment.

“We haven’t heard if the university is going to allow these, but if they don’t present pornography in the light of the form it is, which is an addictive form of the degradation of women…then I think the university if overstepping its bound, and maybe the legislature has to step in again,” Harris said.

Previously in the Baltimore Sun

The University of Maryland, College Park, has canceled this weekend’s screening of a hard-core pornographic film after state lawmakers objected and threatened to cut funding to the flagship state university.

The abrupt decision to cancel the showing of Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge was made by UM President C.D. Mote Jr., according to university system lobbyist P.J. Hogan. As a debate on the sexually explicit film broke out this morning in the Maryland Senate, a behind-the-scenes negotiation took place between university and legislative officials.

[...]

On the Senate floor, Sen. Andrew P. Harris, a Republican from Baltimore and Harford counties, suggested amending the state’s annual budget to deny any funding to a higher education institution that allows a public screening of a film marketed as a XXX-rated adult film, unless it is part of an official academic course.

Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller indicated he would vote for the budget amendment, giving substantial backing to the threat of denying the university tens of millions of dollars in state funding.

“That’s really not what Maryland residents send their young students to college campus for, to view pornography,” said Miller. He acknowledged the legislature shouldn’t get involved in censoring movies but said the General Assembly is not going to support screening hard-core pornographic movies on a state campus paid for by taxpayer dollars.

Linda Clement, vice president for student affairs at Maryland, said the decision to cancel the film was her own and based on a variety of factors.

[...]

Clement said it was appropriate for state lawmakers to be debating what films a university shows on campus. “I think state legislators have the right to weigh in on many, many issues regarding state agencies,” she said.

[...]

Four years ago, the university’s student union showed Deep Throat, the classic 1972 porn film, said Lisa Cunningham, program coordinator for the union’s Hoff Theater. She said she thought Pirates II would be a good alternative to drinking or other dangerous activities.

“We thought this would be something fun for the students to do, especially since we’re getting close to the end of the semester,” Cunningham said. “We’re a college movie theater and we thought it would bring out the students.”

Clement said university officials would now begin a discussion about whether to consider showing porn films in the future. She said she does not normally look at the list of films to be screened. “Maybe I’ll start now,” she added.

Related:
Breaking News: Porn film showing cancelled at UMD after legislative pressure
Hard-core porn film being shown at University of MD

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