by Sara Russo

Members of the Penn State student group Womyn's Concerns, a co-sponsor of the November forum known as CuntFest which is still under investigation for misuse of student fee money, sponsored another sexually explicit event called Sex Faire.

Held in the Pollock Rec Room on Saturday, February 3rd, the forum attracted controversy well before its debut due to an exhibit called the "Tent of Consent" in which students (in groups of two or more) would be allowed two minutes of time behind a private curtain after passing through "checkpoints" emphasizing the need for consent.

Following extensive criticism by Pennsylvania State Representative John Lawless, who serves as a member of Pennsylvania's House Appropriations Committee which approves state funding for the University, Vice President for Student Affairs Bill Asbury ordered the tent closed the day before it was to have opened, claiming that it crossed the line of "speech" and became "conduct." The organizers of Sex Faire nevertheless set up the tent, but taped a sign to the entrance reading "Tent of Consent Closed by order of Penn State."

Sex Faire coincided with Lawless' continuing investigation into the University's funding of CuntFest, a pornographic event that used nearly $10,000 of student fee money to fund its speakers and entertainers.

When asked by Campus Report whether he thought the University would have taken any action to close down the tent without his urging, Lawless responded, "Absolutely no question. They didn't even know about it until I complained about it that Friday."

Even without the "Tent of Consent," Sex Faire contained highly graphic sexual exhibits and games including "Pin the Clitoris on the Vulva" and "Orgasm Bingo" in which bingo cards are labeled with sexual terms and activities and players announce their victory by shouting "Orgasm!" Also available at the Faire were anatomically correct gingerbread cookies, sexually explicit literature, information about sexually transmitted diseases, and condoms.

Unlike Cuntfest which was funded entirely from student activity fees, the approximately $50 cost of Sex Faire was paid for by its organizers, although the event was held in the Pollock Rec Room, a University facility. Penn State University President Graham Spanier objects to the characterization of Sex Faire as sponsored by the University. "Residence buildings such as Pollock are paid for by students through their room and board fees, not through taxpayer funds," Spanier said.

Lawless disagrees, citing the extensive funding Penn State receives from Pennsylvania taxpayers. "They receive, unaccountable, 350 million dollars a year from us, which means they never tell us where they spend the money," he told Campus Report. "I can only assume that it drives the cost of tuition down, it drives the cost of room and board down, and it drives the cost of fees down. Therefore, it may not say it on the brochure that the state paid for it, but the fact of the matter is, if you don't tell me where the 350 million is going, I can only assume that the taxpayers of the commonwealth are helping to subsidize all events."

In an effort to document sexually explicit activities for a future hearing on Penn State's use of taxpayer money, Lawless attended Sex Faire, accompanied by a cameraman. He played a five-minute tape of excerpts from this video at Penn State's House Appropriations Committee hearing held on February 27th in Harrisburg, where he called on Spanier to condemn the goings-on at Cuntfest and Sex Faire.

The dispute over funding is heightened by the fact that only three months after approving the use of nearly $10,000 of student activity money for CuntFest, the University Park Allocation Committee of Penn State University, the entity charged with dispersing funding for student events, has announced that it has run out of money.

"As of February 6, UPAC has finished allocating all student funds for the 2000-2001 year," announced UPAC chairman Eddie Elizondo. "For the remainder of the year we are done."

Most recently, Lawless' campaign has attracted the attention of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge who responded with a two-page letter to Spanier stating that community standards should have been considered by University officials before allowing Sex Faire to proceed. "I believe it is a false choice that Penn State must defend either free speech or community standards," he wrote. "Instead, the University must develop systems and procedures that respect both."

Prompted by the controversy ensuing over Sex Faire, Spanier had previously written to state senators and representatives to apologize for the forum. "I found components of this event offensive and embarrassing to Penn State," Spanier's letter stated. Yet at the Appropriations Committee hearing, he refused to outright condemn Sex Faire, instead asserting that the University tries to achieve a balance between community standards and free speech.

"I don't buy it," Lawless said in response to Spanier's comments about free speech. "I mean you can't hang the 'N' word across a stadium or across a building. But you can hang the 'C' word? The 'C' word is just as derogatory to women as the 'N' word is to African-Americans."

Lawless believes that his campaign against the recent rash of X-rated forums at Penn State has been largely victorious. "At the very minimum, I've already been successful," he told Campus Report. "I've made it an issue. The people of Pennsylvania are catching on to what's going on at Penn State. They need to know where their 350 million dollars is going, what it's subsidizing."

Still, he continues to wait for an explanation that has been a long time in coming. "Nobody has told me what the educational value is yet," he told Campus Report. "What is the educational value of 'orgasm bingo'? What's the educational value of 'pin the clitoris on the vulva'?"