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LOS ANGELES, California, October 19, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – UCLA paid porn stars $2,250 for giving students an “inside look” at the porn industry.

A spring “workshop” brought James Deen and Tasha Reign along with gay porn performer Colby Keller as a “Porn Panel” for students, with the purpose to “get an inside look into the adult film industry from the stars themselves.”

The UCLA student government organized the panel, paying for it with student fees – and taxpayer dollars. 

UCLA officials are defending the panel. Campus Event Commissioner Greg Kalfayan and Student Wellness Commissioner Savannah Baldich co-hosted it, justifying the “Porn Panel” as having “academic value,” according to student newspaper The College Fix.

“We had an open conversation on the adult film industry, sex work, intimacy, and safer sex practices, including communication and consent,” Kalfayan and Baldich stated.

Critics of the porn industry, including former porn “stars,” say there is no such thing as “safe sex” in the multi-billion-dollar industry.  “Performers” are routinely coerced into dangerous and unhealthy sexual risks, and a majority of performers carry STDs.

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Kalfayan and Baldich added that the event was part of a campus-wide effort to “combat sexual violence.” But critics of the porn industry say it undermines equality and encourages violence against women.

The two commissioners said that student “wellness” includes such topics as having sex on camera for money: “This event is not only appropriate, it is our … responsibility to put on educational and entertaining events that reach students from diverse backgrounds on topics that affect their health.”

The event, held in the largest lecture hall on campus, was sold out.

UCLA student Pardes Seleh said she believes that “using college tuition to pay for pornography is both corrupt and irresponsible on the school's part.”

UCLA President Janet Napolitano has boasted, “The University of California is preeminent in educating the state's young people, in enhancing research and scholarship in every discipline, in fostering economic growth, medicine, the arts, its athletic and other programs. Simply put, UC is the gold standard. Together, we must ensure that this standard is upheld.”

LifeSiteNews contacted UCLA President Napolitano, for her opinion as to how a “Porn Panel” advances students academically and combats sexual violence, and U.S. President Barack Obama for his opinion as to whether a “Porn Panel” is an appropriate use of tax dollars. The White House has not responded.

Napolitano had a representative respond via email. Jerlena Griffin-Desta, deputy and executive director for student affairs, answered:

University of California student organizations sponsor a wide variety of extracurricular events that serve the intellectual, social, and cultural interests of our students. UCLA has more than 1,000 student clubs and organizations, and the panel to which your email refers was sponsored in part by the Student Wellness Commission. Student health and well-being is crucial to the academic success and persistence of our students, and this panel appears to have been focused on sexual health and sexual violence, which are critical areas worth exploring on our college campuses.