* Judging just from the story, it does indeed sound like the showing of the article was a bit of a joke, to carry a shock value to the recipient.

* However, the punishment should fit the crime. In this case the university grossly went overboard into a possibly career wrecking punishment. Maybe a private meeting with the professor and a semi-public chastising in the form of a message from the dean would have been more logical.

* Which makes you think: Why do the universities behave in this manner (this incident is by no means unique). Answer is they want to send a "clear message that sexual (or other kinds of) harassment is not tolerated". Problem is, due to recent surge of political correctness, this has been a blanket term to mean anything that may offend your audience. You say Socrates was not black in your lecture? You've offended the Afrocentric crowd (see Mary Lefkowitz's experiences at http://www.wellesley.edu/CS/Mary/contents.html). You suggest men and women may have innate cognitive differences, you, of course, offend everyone (see Steven Pinker). I could go on but the margin is too small to hold the full list.

This is sad for two reasons: i) The lesser reason is that, well, increasing levels of PC is stifling for all society. ii) But the main worry point is that these things happened in academia, the bastion of free thinking. For one thing, I think the threshold of academics to handle PC-sensitive topics should be higher than the general public. That's why they're academics.