UCSD Professor On Naked Final Exam: 'It's A Standard Canvas For Performance Art, Body Art'

SAN DIEGO (CBSLA.com) — The professor of a visual arts course at a Southland university that called on art students to perform a portion of the exam in the buff spoke out about the final.

The visual art class at UC San Diego involves students acting out a series of gestures the very last one of which is called "Erotic Self" and asks students to perform while naked.

That requirement has since been adjusted but raised some eyebrows.

A mother of one student who didn't want to be identified said "it's just wrong."

"And to blanketly say, 'You must be naked in order to pass my class.' It makes me sick to my stomach," the parent said.

The professor of the course, Ricardo Dominguez, spoke by phone and defended the class. stating that students knew from the beginning that this was expected of them.

Dominguez says everyone is naked, himself included, in a dark room only lighted by candles.

"It's a standard canvas for performance art and body art," Dominguez said.

The chair of the university's Visual Arts Department says the class is not a requirement for graduation, and the school now says students are not required to be nude to pass the final.