EDITORIAL QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Should professor have given in?

KENNETH Ng, a Cal State Northridge associate professor, took alot of heat after the Daily News published a story about hisextracurricular Internet activities earlier this month.

Ng, a tenured economics professor, ran a website calledBigBabyKenny.com, which included information about the sex tourismtrade in Thailand, such as how to negotiate prices for sex. Itdidn't sit well with many students and community members thatsomeone charged with the care and feeding of young minds was, intheir opinion, encouraging the exploitation of young women.

Under pressure from the public and the university, Ng shut downthe website Friday.

At first the university looked the other way when it found outabout the website last year. CSUN officials said that Ng's legalactivities on his own time weren't their business. Many peopledisagreed, and the university received dozens of e-mails criticizingthe site, the university and Ng. Hundreds from people from acrossthe world signed a petition asking the university to fire Ng if hedidn't shut down the website.

Ng apparently decided on his own to turn down the heat by makinghis website dark. California State University, Northridge, officialspublicly thanked him.

What do you think?

Should Ng have given in? Does he have a right to engage inbehavior that others find morally repugnant so long as it is on hisown time? Should he be denied freedom of speech for the sake of theuniversity's reputation?

Or should Ng never have created something that bringsembarrassment to his department and CSUN? Further, does theuniversity have a responsibility to protect students, many of whomare still impressionable teenagers, from the potentially offensivebehavior of faculty?

Send your responses to opinionated@

dailynews.com. Please include your full name, the community orcity in which you live and a daytime phone number. We'll print asmany as we can in Sunday's Opinionated section.