Annapolis, Md. -- University of Maryland students are going at it again, saying they plan to screen a pornographic movie that was canceled after state lawmakers threatened to withhold funding.
Students at the university's flagship College Park campus even have reserved a special place on campus to show the film Monday night, while students at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County said they also hoped to show the film -- "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge."
Kenton Stalder, a College Park junior who is organizing the screening, said he was inviting professors to moderate a discussion on free speech issues before the screening.
"We're trying to be really careful with how we present it because it's such a contentious issue," Stalder said. "We want to have the faculty behind us and have the message shaped in a way the administration can embrace it instead of having it squashed."
On Thursday, officials at the College Park campus canceled a planned Saturday night showing, saying the film's educational context was lost in the debate.
After learning of the plans for the screening, Sen. Andrew Harris, R-Baltimore County, offered an amendment to the state budget that would have cut state funding to public colleges showing hard-core pornographic films on campus. The amendment would have made exceptions for films shown in a classroom for a course such as cinematography.
Harris said Friday that universities should block on-campus pornography unless it is in an academic context.
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"If they want to press the issue with presenting pornography for fun and entertainment in a university facility, with explicit approval of the university, then they would have to deal with that in future budgets," Harris said.
