Rumors have spread about streaking if the Royals win the World Series, and Emporia Sate policy has no section against nudity.
A thousand people or so will ride bikes naked through London on the Queen’s birthday to publicize “green” transportation, said Mel Storm, professor of English, modern languages, and journalism.
But, those in the nude at ESU or the city of Emporia could be apprehended on terms of “lewd and lascivious” behavior.
Chris Hoover, chief police for ESU’s Police and Safety, said there are some statured rules ESU would follow in handling a case dealing with nudity on campus. According to kslegislature.org, “lewd and lascivious behavior concerning nudity is publicly exposing a sex organ or exposing a sex organ in the presence of a person who is not the spouse of the offender and who has not consented thereto, with intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desires of the offender or another.”
There is nothing specific in the student code of conduct for rules about being clothed on campus, but it does fall under disorderly conduct, which prohibits behaviors that are in violation of federal, state and local laws and ordinances.
“(If this issue occurred,) there would definitely be a conversation,” said Lynn Hobson, dean of students. “We always try to handle things from an educational perspective when we can. Probably with something like this there would not be any intent to harm another person, so that’s when we really start to draw a line between something that can be harmful to another person whereas someone is making a poor personal choice.”
Hobson has never had to deal with this type of issue since she has been at ESU.
“You can walk around your house naked, I mean I do that, but when you go outside you need to be clothed because you just have to respect other people and how they may feel about it,” said Morgan Limon, sophomore English major and creative writing and journalism minor. “It could be against some people’s religion and be a touchy subject.”
While ESU is intolerable towards being nude on campus, there was a play named “Equus” that seemed to completely disregard this statute.
“Equus, which involves a fair amount of nudity by the protagonist or main character, was actually staged here by the theatre department by a student actor playing that role,” Storm said. “This was staged over 20 years ago, and I’ll bet that play wouldn’t be staged here today.”
Today, nudity on campus is seen as a violation towards others and also a disruption for the students. Times have changed, and being naked is considered something that would be offensive towards others.
Hoover says walking naked is clearly not something our society considers normal or acceptable and would be considered a problem that needs addressed.
