Arriving naked at a final exam is one of the most common nightmares for students, according to Psychology Today. At the University of California San Diego, however, the naked final exam is a requirement for a class in the visual arts department.
Students are required to perform “a gesture that traces, outlines or speaks about your ‘erotic self(s),'” according to the course syllabus. In the performance, all of the students are naked, along with the professor, Roberto Dominguez, who has taught the class for 11 years.
“It’s the standard canvas for performance art and body art,” Dominguez told local ABC News affiliate KGTV. “It is all very controlled…If they are uncomfortable with this gesture, they should not take the class.” He was defending the class after one mother spoke out, claiming the requirement was not clear and was a “perversion.”
According to the UCSD Visual Arts department website, the course is a prerequisite for a verbal performance art class. Fully 95% of students in the class receive a grade of “A,” according to the college course ratings website koofers.com.
Domniguez’s biography on the department website lists a series of political efforts, including a government-funded project called the “Transborder Immigrant Tool,” in which he handed out cell phones to prospective illegal immigrants with instructions about how to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
The goal of the project, which was funded by U.S. government grants and UCSD, and which was subsequently investigated by Congress, was to use poetry to “dissolve” the border.