Microaggressions on display: Univ. of Calif. San Diego professor requires students to be naked to pass final exam

Greg P. | 10:35 AM on May 12, 2015

A University of California San Diego professor is making waves on Twitter today after news organizations started reporting on his rather odd-sounding requirement students need to meet in order to pass his final exam.

According to media reports, they have to be nekkid:

You stay classy UCSD: Professor requires his students to perform an "erotic gesture" on final exam. http://t.co/QiXDsIBMED

— Tim Groseclose (@Tim_Groseclose) May 12, 2015

Trending on Facebook this morning… If you take Visual Arts 104A: Performing the Self at UCSD prepare to be nude … http://t.co/Db5UcoCWh5

— Amanda Makepeace (@amandamakepeace) May 12, 2015

Theater workshop or touchy, feely, identity intensive with perks. Class Requires UCSD Students to Sit Nude | Complex http://t.co/QxKGVOWDxr

— Eric Wong Projects (@ewongprojects) May 11, 2015

And get this. The professor, who is nude, too, while giving the final, is defending his actions. From ABC 15:

Associate Professor Ricardo Dominguez has been teaching Visual Arts 104A: Performing the Self for 11 years.

“The class that focuses on the history of body art and performance art in relation to the question of the self or subjectivity,” Dominguez told 10News by phone Friday.

[…]

He said that 20 students strip down, including him. He calls it a performance of self, in a dark room lit only by candlelight.

“It’s a standard canvas for performance art and body art,” Dominguez said.

“It is very all controlled,” he added.

Dominguez said that students know what to expect from the first day of class.

“If they are uncomfortable with this gesture they should not take the class,” Dominguez said bluntly.