Professor J. Michael Bailey has finally said that if he had it all to do over again, he wouldn't have endorsed a kink seminar at Northwestern Illinois University in Evanston, near Chicago. 

Those words were slow in coming from the popular professor at Northwestern who teaches the extremely popular course called Human Sexuality.  As the events happened on February 21, 2011, the professor invited his class of 600 students to attend an after-class and on-campus seminar on kink and fetish labeled 'Networking for Kinky People.'  By definition, in human sexuality, kink refers to a playful usage of sexual concepts in an accentuated expressive form.  Bailey made it clear that the seminar was not required of the students in his class, and the material would not count towards a grade. One-hundred students chose to attend the seminar. 

During the presentation, Bailey was informed that the performers wanted to give a live presentation of kink.  After giving the request some thought, Bailey agreed to allow the performers do their live act.  Prior to the live act, students were informed that the presentation was going to be graphic and that they should leave if they didn't want to see it.  Some students left. 

The live act included a high-powered sex toy being used on Faith Kroll, 25, by Jim Marcus, the woman's 43-year old fiance.  It is this part of the seminar that has brought national attention to the Chicago-area institution of learning in an extremely negative way.  Though the events related to the kink seminar stayed local for more than a week, the story exploded this past week.  

By Wednesday, a statement from the University defended the seminar and the professor by releasing a statement that said the school's faculty is at the leading edge of their respective disciplines and insisted that the University supports the efforts of its faculty to further the advancement of knowledge.  Something happened between Wednesday's released-statement and what was to follow on Thursday as Morton Schapiro, President of NU, said that he is launching a full investigation into the presentation on kink and fetish.  He also said that he was troubled and disappointed that the presentation occurred before approximately 100 NU students, and then personally criticized Professor Bailey for having poor judgement in linking the presentation to the school and the professor's course.  Finally, the President stated that the presentation was neither appropriate nor keeping with NU's academic mission. 

Public reaction and the viral media on the story may have changed the University's stance on the sex-act presentation which utilized a sex toy with an engaged power saw handle.  The sex toy - a replica of an erect penis which is commonly referred to as a dildo - was attached to a power saw instead of a blade, and used on the female to result in an orgasm within three minutes. 

Though the students tend to say the presentation didn't bother them, President Schapiro Professor has said that the presentation was totally wrong.  Bailey had originally said that he takes total responsibility for the seminar but would not say he regretted his actions.  Initially, he insisted that no one was hurt by the kink demonstration, and he indicated that the President's remarks were definitely not what he wanted to hear. 

By week's end, however, Professor Bailey was talking less assertively about not being regretful and stating that the presentation should not have taken place.  A couple of days after President Schapiro's harshly critical remarks, Professor Bailey now sounds more concerned about the University's damaged image as does President Schapiro.  

Bailey, who has taught at Northwestern since 1989, acknowledges that the study of human sexuality is a controversial subject matter, and he says that the inclusion of kinky sex in the course is just a minute part of the overall content. 

Source: WGN