Prof. John Michael Bailey's popular Human Sexuality course, which came under national scrutiny following a controversial after-class, optional sex toy demonstration in February, will not be offered during the next academic year, University spokesman Al Cubbage confirmed Monday afternoon.
"Courses in human sexuality are offered in a variety of academic departments in other universities, and Northwestern is reviewing how such a course best fits into the University's curriculum," Cubbage wrote in a statement.
Bailey's class, which drew widespread attention after it included a presentation involving a motorized sex toy earlier this year, is not listed in the tentative psychology course planner posted on the department's website Tuesday. Bailey will, however, be teaching two 300-level Special Topics courses — one titled "Dangerous Ideas" — next school year, according to the document.
The course's removal presents a larger inevitability for Robin Mathy, the Oregon-based clinician who filed ethics complaints with the American Psychological Association in the wake of Bailey's demonstration.
"I don't think you will see John Michael Bailey teaching Human Sexuality at Northwestern University ever again," she said Monday night.
Bailey, who has taught Human Sexuality since 1994, could not be reached for comment Monday.
Cubbage further clarified that the class' exclusion is not a direct response to Bailey's sex toy demonstration but a related outcome.
"What we're saying is we're reviewing the curricula," he said. "The review is prompted by that."
Cubbage added that the University investigation into Bailey's conduct launched in March "continues, and is in addition to this."
When asked when University administration planned to inform psychology students of the course removal if not today, Cubbage said he "honestly doesn't know."
Psychology department assistant chair Ben Gorvine said the department was not responsible for the decision and that it was issued by a higher academic authority.
Prof. Karl Rosengren, the psychology department's director of undergraduate studies, said he was notified within the "past couple of weeks" that Human Sexuality would not be available for enrollment next year. However, he declined to comment further on how that announcement was communicated to the department.
The discovery especially irked Communication sophomore Luis Pineiro, who started a Facebook petition defending Bailey in March that attracted more than 800 student signatures. He said the academic decision to drop Human Sexuality altogether "reflects poorly on what a college should be offering students."
"That's denying students the opportunity to take a class with new and exciting perspectives on sexuality," he added.
But Mathy, who attributed the class' removal to its lack of relevance to the psychology program, commended the NU administration for reassessing Human Sexuality's role in the department's curriculum.
"It's exactly the right decision for them to make at the time," she said. "Even Northwestern needs to take time to find a highly qualified professor with a doctorate degree."
Whether her ethics complaints — which allege Bailey may have exposed minors to a public sex act and knowingly inflicted psychological damage upon present students — influenced NU administrators is a matter on which she is mostly undecided. She said the status of those grievances is currently confidential per APA policy, but interested parties may "have already seen the outcome" in Monday's announcement.
"I don't think we can ever know," Mathy said. "We can't say my complaint was the causative factor. It was a factor."
Regardless of Mathy's weight, Pineiro decried the University's move as a "pretty outrageous" slap in the face to future generations of students.
"He's garnered a lot of controversy, but the fact is, it's one of the most popular classes that exists on this campus," Pineiro said.
patricksvitek2014@u.northwestern.edu
Statement by Alan K. Cubbage, Vice President for University Relations
May 9, 2011
Northwestern University's Department of Psychology will not offer a course in human sexuality during the 2011-12 academic year. That course was taught previously by Professor J. Michael Bailey, who will have other teaching assignments in the coming year. Courses in human sexuality are offered in a variety of academic departments in other universities, and Northwestern is reviewing how such a course best fits into the University's curriculum. At Northwestern University, the dean of a college/school has the right and responsibility to determine course assignments.
Check back for more information throughout the day and a full story in Tuesday's edition.
is a member of the 
39 comments
Publication of confidential clinical psychological case-history information by J. Michael Bailey of Northwestern University.
J. Michael Bailey performing unlicensed clinical therapy - with evidence provided in the form of SRS approval letters.
The Bailey Affair: Psychology Perverted - Joan Roughgarden, Department of Biological Sciences,Stanford University"In 2003, J. Michael Bailey's book The Man Who Would Be Queen was published by the National Academies Press (JHP imprint). The book denied the existence of gendered identities and proclaimed as a scientific fact that all transitioned women were either (i) gay men who had undergone SRS in order to attract and have sex with large numbers of straight men or (ii) mentally-ill sexually paraphilic men who had undergone SRS in order to heighten their autosexual thrills. "The following quote is apposite in view of recent events:
"Virtually all practicing psychologists adhere to the American Psychological Association code of ethics, and my reading of TMWWBQ and Dreger���s article leads me to believe that Bailey violated a number of ethical standards regarding human relations. Section 3.04 (Avoiding Harm) reads, ������Psychologists take reasonable steps to avoid harming their clients/patients, students, supervisees, research participants, organizational clients, and others with whom they work, and to minimize harm where it is foreseeable and unavoidable������ (emphasis added). There is no doubt that Kieltyka, at least, was harmed by Bailey���s research, and that harm was reasonably foreseeable and avoidable. That Bailey repeatedly permitted Kieltyka to undress in his classroom and promulgated her exhibitionism in pornographic videos suggests to me that he had prurient interests that transcended any educational benefit to his students. How any dean of a well-respected research institution could permit such decadent behavior in the guise of pedagogy is simply astonishing. . .. . . The thought process, ������If I did it, it wasn���t wrong������ and, ������Oh, by the way, I didn���t do it because it doesn���t meet the definition������ is the same kind of antisocial thinking I see in the inmates of the local county jail, with whom I do group therapy twice a week." - Robin M. MathyIt is beyond "unfortunate", it's tragic that no course on Human Sexuality will be offered. But while the course is being run by a proverbial "loose cannon", whose past racist, sexist, and transphobic statements have caused immense problems, and whose attitude towards "professional ethics" and even "legal requirements" is cavalier at best, I don't see that they have a choice. This is not the first such episode, nor the second, nor the third.Again, as member of a minority group who Dr Bailey has described as "especially suited to prostitution".. and constitutionally incapable of telling the truth, I cannot be objective here. I therefore urge others to do their own independant research on the long trail of ethics violations and questionable decisions Dr Bailey's career is littered with.
-- Simon LeVay, Ph.D.