One Thursday in early February, two trainers sit at the desk of the SRC weight room. It's a slow morning and to pass time one reads the police beat section of The State Press out loud.

"Dude, listen to this," he says to a colleague. "An 18-year-old male was arrested Sunday, January 29, at the Hayden Library and charged with indecent exposure and public sexual indecency. The suspect allegedly pulled his underwear to his mid-thighs to masturbate while watching pornography on his laptop."

According to the ASU Police Department report, it started at 9:30 p.m., when a campus security assistant was walking through the third floor of Hayden Library. As she was doing her checks, she noticed a male at a desk who had pulled his pants down to mid-thigh and who had his hand on his penis, masturbating.

She proceeded to call 911 immediately, saying later in the report it was "totally gross" that someone was doing such an act in public. Within 15 minutes, a police officer had arrived on the scene.

By that time the student had stopped masturbating but the officer later wrote in the report: "I could see through his pants that the student still had an erection."

"To be honest, the Internet connection in my dorm isn't fast enough," the student said in the report. "It takes 30 seconds just to download a picture."

According to Vicki Coleman, associate dean of Library Services, many students may have legitimate academic reasons for viewing pornography and therefore in the interests of "free intellectual exploration," library staff do not monitor what students are looking at.

But such an open policy can lead to exploitation. After two incidents of non-student patrons viewing sexual images of children at ASU libraries in February 2005, Coleman says the library was forced to install filtering software on machines that do not require a student login.

In one case, a staff member recalls, a chase ensued after a police officer climbed over the railing to arrest a student who was viewing inappropriate material.

According to Coleman, it is only when viewing pornography "interferes with the rights of other library patrons" that University staff will take action.

Some students say they feel an element of sympathy for the library masturbator.  Christian, an ASU student who asked that SPM not use his last name, says he has also masturbated in public.

"I've done it in libraries, offices, department stores," he says. "It's something about doing the most private thing in the most public institution. The element of risk turns me on."

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