While the university’s new sexual assault policy has garnered considerable attention, one aspect of gender relations at Notre Dame has gone undiscussed: pornography. As many members of the Notre Dame community can attest, Notre Dame is no exception to its widespread use, primarily in male dorms. Attempts to clarify university policy on pornography use, however, yielded mixed results.
The Office of Information Technology’s (OIT) “Responsible Use of Information Technology Resources” statement instructs, “never use University resources to post, view, print, store, or send obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, or offensive material, except for officially approved, legitimate academic or University purposes.” OIT maintains and oversees all of the university’s web systems and internet usage.
Inquiries directed to Father Thomas P. Doyle, CSC, vice president of the Office of Student Affairs, and Lenette Votava, communication director for OIT, went unanswered.
Questions addressed to Tom Klimek, network systems manager for OIT, and to Mark Kocovski, senior human resources consultant, were referred to University Spokesman Dennis Brown.
“When brought to our attention, we reserve the right to investigate any claim of inappropriate use of technology resources by a student or employee, and when we find a violation we can and will assess an appropriate sanction, which may include suspension of that individual’s NetID,” Brown stated. “The university relies on the integrity of our students, faculty and staff to abide by this and other policies.”
According to Mr. Klimek, OIT does not currently filter any sites or maintain any statistics on obscenity or pornography, and would only possibly get involved if they received a specific complaint from a faculty, staff, or student.
When asked to address specific questions about the university’s and OIT’s involvement in the issue, Brown responded, “rather than address your questions one by one, we decided to provide an overarching response on the topic and have nothing to add beyond that.”
Pornography is not condemned specifically in Du Lac, although it is related to the university’s prohibition, rooted explicitly in Catholic teaching, on sexual activity outside of marriage. The Church condemns pornography as a grave offense which injures the dignity of participants, vendors, and society as a whole.
Du Lac’s injunction that “[a]ctions which seemingly affect only the individual(s) involved but which may have a negative or disruptive impact on the University community and/or concern a student’s personal and academic growth” is arguably pertinent as well.
Father Ralph Haag, CSC, rector of St. Edward’s Hall, described the harmful effects of pornography. For person attracted to pornography, he said, “Relationships are not with individuals but rather with things, things that we can use for the moment and then disregard when done. Relationships are not about growing and bettering one another but rather become about servicing one at the expense of the other.”
Father Wilson (Bill) Miscamble, CSC, professor of history and former rector, echoed Fr. Haag’s comments.
“Pornography tends to limit the capacity of its users to develop genuine friendships with women,” he said. “The porn habit produces individuals who have no deep commitment to the dignity of human persons and little real respect for themselves. It is deeply harmful to young men and it serves to handicap their emergence as real and mature men.”
“Notre Dame is a place that is concerned to educate the ‘whole person,’” said Fr. Miscamble. “At its best it provides for the moral development and spiritual well-being of its students.”
Doctor David G. Moss, interim director of the Gender Relations Center (GRC), said that “pornography normalizes the idea of physical intimacy without relationship. The hook-up culture adopts this fantasized concept of ‘sex whenever you want it’ and translates it for consumption in a more palatable format.”
According to Moss, there is not enough being done to raise awareness of this issue.
“The GRC is always concerned with any issue that hinders our ability to build authentic relationship in our community,” he said. “Our best weapon against this societal ill is to educate our student body about the havoc objectification of the other has on genuine relationships, and the GRC hopes to be a participant in these conversations.”
“Personal conviction is the best answer to this problem,” added Moss. “This is a difficult calling, but one that I believe the Notre Dame community is ready to accept.”
Mike is a sophomore philosophy-theology and Italian major who saves the world one misplaced book at a time. Contact him at mbradle6@nd.edu.
