SACRAMENTO, CA — Most public American universities have reputations as bastions of liberal thought and rebellious youthful behavior. In recent weeks, several campuses across the country have taken that impression to a whole new level by offering free-to-students screenings of Digital Playground’s award-winning X-rated, special effects-laden fantasy Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge.To date, the University of California at Los Angeles, Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Southern Connecticut University have screened the film. On Thursday, UC Davis will join the list.

Students at the campus that was home to quite a bit of activity during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and ’70s took the news with varying degrees of interest. Some admitted curiosity, and others said they’d already seen the flick.

“To me, it’s a joke,” one UC Davis student told television station KCRA.

“When I heard about it I was kind of shocked, but not too shocked,” another said.

According to the school’s Entertainment Council, the event was intended to be a light-hearted break from studies.

“We will have a speaker that will talk about porn fantasy issues before the screening,” Entertainment Council member Golda Criddle told KCRA.

By Tuesday, more than 500 people had RSVPed to attend the unadvertised screening in a theater that seats only 440. That impressed Ali Joone, chief executive officer of Digital Playground and the writer and director of Stagnetti’s Revenge.

“I’m always impressed by the open-minded attitude in our country’s universities,” he told The Washington Times. “Sex is a topic which should be discussed in the open. It is no longer taboo.”

Joone also told the paper that DP has offered the film to student activities offices around the country. Most campuses do not forbid pornography, although they required proof of majority before allowing students access to the screenings.

“Numerous colleges published reviews and stories on Pirates, sparking the healthy debate as to whether adult entertainment has a place in academic studies,” he said.

Not everyone is as pleased as Joone. A spokesman for Young America’s Foundation, a conservative, Virginia-based group that monitor’s the cultural and ideological atmosphere on college and university campuses, indicated porn on campus is an inappropriate use of educational funds, no matter how lofty the discussion that ensues.

“Parents don’t shell out thousands of dollars for porn to be adopted into the official curriculum,” Jason Mattera told The Washington Times. “Students can get that for free, with an internet search. Perhaps college officials should concentrate on beefing up their students’ abysmal knowledge of American history, civics and free enterprise.”

Actually, the porn debate dovetails nicely with American history, civics and free enterprise. The lecture preceding Stagnetti’s Revenge at UC Davis will deal with pornography as a cultural institution. Such events have occurred on American campuses since Deep Throat debuted — and played on several campuses — more than three decades ago.

However, at least one institution of higher learning has been forced to capitulate to Mattera’s viewpoint. After legislators threatened to pull tens of millions in annual public funding from the University of Maryland — the state’s flagship school — UM President C.D. Mote Jr. cancelled a Stagnetti’s Revenge screening scheduled to occur this weekend.

Prior to the cancellation, UM theater manager Lisa Cunningham told The Washington Times, “Four years ago, we showed Deep Throat, and nobody spoke up.”

No sooner did Cunningham’s words appear in print than lawmakers threw a fit. An animated debate reportedly broke out on the state senate’s floor, during which the First Amendment met religion head-on and lost.

“That’s really not what Maryland residents send their young students to college campus for, to view pornography,” Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller [D-Calvert and Prince George’s Counties] noted.

Although Miller agreed the legislature should not become involved in censoring movies, he said tax dollars should not be used to support porn on campus.

Republican Sen. Andrew P. Harris suggested a budget amendment that would deny funds to any public institution that allows public viewing of porn, unless the material is part of a recognized academic course.

According to Cunningham, the UM theater is self-supporting and receives no public funds. In addition, Digital Playground provided the film to all universities for free, so no public funds were used to acquire screening rights.