SAN DIEGO, CA – University of California, San Diego students can learn a lot from watching their student-run closed circuit television station – but not about sex, not anymore. On Wednesday, October 26, the UCSD Associate Students Council voted to ban the showing of any sexually explicit video content on the college channel.The move was in response to student and parent complaints concerning the repeated airing of “Koala TV,” hosted by a 22-year-old student.
Steve York, the host of the controversial program, is no stranger to controversy when it comes to his work appearing on the university channel. Koala TV had already been pulled from rotation in March when he broadcast live footage of himself stripping naked for the cameras in spite of a request from the student government that no nudity be broadcast on the station. Prior to that, Koala TV had inspired an email and telephone campaign of protest when it showed York having sex with an unidentified woman.
The last closed circuit, campus-only broadcast from Koala TV occurred on the Thursday prior to the ban and had included considerable footage depicting a porn actress having sex with a college student.
When the program was originally removed in March, the Associated Students Council deemed its content to be inappropriate and agreed to clarify station obscenity guidelines, as well as establish a grievance and investigation procedure. In the meantime, new student managers of the station decided to permit broadcast of the program as long as no students were placed in physical danger.
“Our primary mission is to provide students with a means of producing films and productions,” explained Andrew Tess, a station manager at UCSD’s Student Run Television. “We don’t want to stand in the way of creative freedom.”
According to the station’s student determined and enforced charter, indecent – but not obscene – programming may be broadcast between 10:00pm and 6:00am. The closed circuit station has an annual budget of $8,000 that is funded through student fees.
