Suspended Nudist Barred From UC Berkeley Campus

A nudist who was suspended from UC Berkeley last weekend will not be allowed on campus pending further review of his case, university officials announced Wednesday--and his return is contingent on wearing clothes.

“He’s not going to be allowed to come back nude. That’s the bottom line,” UC spokeswoman Patricia McBroom said of junior Andrew Martinez.

Martinez, known as “The Naked Guy” for coming to school unencumbered by clothing since classes began in August, was barred from the university by UC police on Saturday for violating a new school policy requiring Berkeley students to wear clothes on campus.

The police order was found to have violated university rules and was temporarily revoked, but the university reinstated the suspension Wednesday.

The suspension will remain in effect while the office of student conduct reviews the case. The process, which usually takes about 10 days, could result in Martinez’s dismissal from the university.

Martinez has become a local celebrity since leading about two dozen naturalists in a September “Nude-In” outside the campus administration building.

“We’re socialized to think that a lot of things are necessary in life, but I just came to think that it’s completely useless to wear clothes,” said the 19-year-old Martinez, who attended classes twice wearing nothing but sandals.

“Nakedness isn’t that big of a deal,” he added, explaining that experiments with marijuana and LSD led him to question the use of clothing and other social mores. “It’s a body, we all have one, we all have genitals. . . . There’s all these little weird neuroses of our culture that could be helped a little if nudity were accepted.”

But some students and staff viewed Martinez’s actions as amounting to sexual harassment. “It’s pretty much common sense that people wear clothes when they go to class,” said UC spokesman Jesus Mena. “But once it became an issue where people felt they were sexually harassed, we had to take action on it.”

Martinez has been arrested for nudity three times this fall. But Alameda County--where lewd and lascivious behavior is illegal but public nudity is not--has dropped the charges each time. Martinez came to court naked to answer one set of charges and was forced to put on clothing before entering the courtroom.