The University System of Maryland Board of Regents today directed system Chancellor William E. Kirwan to develop policy recommendations regarding sexually explicit material on state university campuses, the Baltimore Sun's Stephen Kiehl tells us.

The plan is to be presented to the regents this summer, before a Sept. 1 deadline set by the legislature. Lawmakers asked for a policy to be developed after the University of Maryland scheduled a screening of a hard-core film in the student union. The university canceled the screening, but students showed it on their own in a campus lecture hall Monday night.

And the screening of "Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge" reminds on the minds of commentators everywhere.

Blair Lee IV, a political commentator and developer from Montgomery County, made this interesting observation in his column published today in the Gazette newspapers:

The porn film was a bad idea from the beginning. Why university officials didn't understand that is a mystery. But here's a window into the university's thinking. This week, in the midst of the porn film controversy, the U.M. senate voted 42 to 14 to eliminate the opening prayer from this year's graduation ceremony.

Porn, yes. Prayer, no. Welcome to the University of Maryland whose idea of a morally objectionable film is probably "The Passion of The Christ."

Still, we may be nearing the end of the line for this particularly intriguing kerfuffle.