Mum labels uni professor 'pervert' after claiming daughter must perform naked to pass art class

The professor, and former students have hit back, saying an "emotionally naked" act stands just as much chance of achieving a pass in the "erotic self" assignment

An angry mum has blasted a university art class and its leader after claiming her daughter has to pose naked if she wants to pass the course.

Visual arts students at the University of California in San Diego are apparently required to go nude in front of a 20-strong class or fail part of the course, the angry mother told KGTV-TV.

But although she's livid at the idea, the academic department has hit back, denying that's the case.

Faculty members and former students have defended the course, adding that "performing the self" class participants are at liberty to employ figurative nudity to pass the final.

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The university professor Ricardo Dominguez has been lighting his classroom by candlelight and baring it all alongside his students as part of the assignment for 11 years and never received any complaints, he told the TV station.

"It’s a standard canvas for performance art and body art," he explains.

"If they are uncomfortable with this gesture, they should not take the course.

"To blanketly say, 'You must be naked in order to pass my class' — it makes me sick to my stomach."

The student's mother's ire was raised by a note in the syllabus on an 'erotic self' assignment, requiring students to "create a gesture that traces the outlines or speaks about your 'erotic self(s)'."

The class description on the Department of Visual Arts website says: "Using autobiography, dream, confession, fantasy or other means to invent one’s self in a new way, or to evoke the variety of selves in our imagination, the course experiments with and explores the rich possibilities available to the contemporary artist in his or her own persona."

The student's mum, who is not identified, accused the professor of "perversity" and said the final test was "just wrong".

But those who said they took the course endorsed the naked day.

One said: "We had a choice between being nude or doing something emotionally 'naked' and every student but one chose to do the nude performance.

"It was uncomfortable for some of us but we were adults and knew what we were getting ourselves into from day one of the class."