The University of Maryland, College Park, has cancelled a planned weekend porn screening, meant, evidently, to be an alternative to drinking for a few hours. The Baltimore Sun reports:
UM President C.D. Mote Jr. decided to cancel the screening of Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge, which was to be shown at the student union and had been approved by a student programming committee. A behind-the-scenes negotiation between state Senate officials and the university ensued after a debate broke out this morning on the chamber’s floor over the screening.
“That’s really not what Maryland residents send their young students to college campus for, to view pornography,”said Senate President Thomas V. Mike 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.
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.
Kinda makes you wonder what academic courses are being offered at UMD.