NU Professor Apologizes for Demonstration

By Soyoung Kwak in Miscellaneous on Mar 6, 2011 5:00PM

The now-infamous Northwestern University professor who gave his students the option to view a sex-toy in action is now showing pangs of regret over the whole ordeal. While he stood behind his decision to go through with the explicit demonstration just before the weekend began, Professor John Michael Bailey issued a statement in the Daily Northwestern Saturday expressing his regret and concern over his post-class demonstration:

"I regret allowing the controversial after class demonstration on February 21st. I regret the effect that this has had on Northwestern University's reputation, and I regret upsetting so many people in this particular manner. I apologize," wrote Bailey.

Students in Bailey's class were repeatedly warned about the explicit nature of the demonstration, but were not told exactly what was going to happen during the demonstration. Bailey states that he shouldn't have allowed the demonstration to occur and that he would never allow a similar event to happen in the future:

According to Bailey, "As I have noted elsewhere, the demonstration was unplanned and occurred because I made a quick decision to allow it. I should not have done so. In the 18 years I have taught the course, nothing like the demonstration at issue has occurred and I will allow nothing like it to happen again."

Although the debate surrounding whether or not Bailey violated the terms of "academic freedom" is ongoing and Bailey is worried about the prospect of losing his job, Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro previously announced that he would launch an investigation into the explicit after-class tutorial.