BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) – Faculty members at the University of Colorado in Boulder organized for an emergency meeting to discuss Professor Patricia Adler, who is embroiled in controversy after teaching a class about prostitution.
Adler apparently had teacher’s assistants dress in different costumes portraying different types of prostitutes. Some students complained it made them uncomfortable.
“The issue is with how it’s being taught and particularly with this skit and whether or not students are undertaking the skit with full consent and knowledge of what’s involved and the implications of what’s involved,” said CU Dean of Arts and Sciences Steven Leigh.
Now there are new concerns about cell phones and videotaping.
“We were concerned in this course maybe there were cell phone videos being taken or other kinds of video that would put students in a position where we didn’t have consent on these issues,” said Leigh.
Wednesday’s emergency closed door meeting included about 30 members of the faculty assembly and the Dean of Arts and Sciences.
Adler is a tenured sociology professor at CU. She says she is being targeted because of concerns about political correctness in the post-Penn State era.
She has become a cause on social media with a Facebook page of more than 1,000 supporters and a petition to save her job.
The university had first said she would not be allowed to teach the “Deviance in U.S. Society” course next semester, but now says it will reconsider if she asks for a review of the class. If that review passes by the Sociology Department she could teach the class in the spring.
Adler’s peers were given the opportunity to discuss the case as a group on Wednesday.
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