“I wouldn’t normally go to a barn on a Tuesday morning to have sex on a hay bale. It’s my job, and we’re professionals,” Hartley said. “It’s OK to like porn. It’s OK to not like porn. And it’s OK to be confused by porn. You are where you are, and you are who you are.”

Earlier this week, several school officials called the Tribune to question both the value of Hartley’s appearance and the unusually covert way the university promoted it (none agreed to speak on the record), especially since the talk was part of National Freedom of Speech Week.

The event did not appear on the university’s online events calendar and, unlike many events, was not made known to the press. It was promoted only on the digital signs on campus.

“We promoted it extensively on campus, on our digital signs, and we felt that was the best way to do it,” Chancellor Joe Gow said Thursday. “There was concern, because it’s a controversial topic, that people would send this far and wide, and we’d get people who aren’t going to come, and they sensationalize it.”

Hartley, 59, has had a 35-year career as an adult film actress and has been a respected voice in intellectual conversations about sex, relationships and a variety of social issues.