--- title: Clemson University Pulls Controversial Title IX Sex Training Program description: The program is "under review" according to a university representative canonical: https://time.com/3404430/clemson-sex-training-program/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-19T20:41:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:01.098Z og:title: Clemson University Pulls Controversial Title IX Sex Training Program og:description: The program is "under review" according to a university representative og:url: https://time.com/3404430/clemson-sex-training-program/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b96219c2b11a32f/6986a46a55a8597176a82ae8/470690963.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4820 og:image:height: 2711 og:image:alt: Clemson University Tillman Hall in Snow og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clemson University Pulls Controversial Title IX Sex Training Program twitter:description: The program is "under review" according to a university representative twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4b96219c2b11a32f/6986a46a55a8597176a82ae8/470690963.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Clemson Pulls Training Program That Asked Students About Sex Lives > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Sep 19, 2014 8:41 PM UTC  Clemson University Tillman Hall in winter during a rare snowfall February, 2014, Clemson, South Carolina. Clemson University Tillman Hall in winter during a rare snowfall February, 2014, Clemson, South Carolina.Dawson Powers—Flickr Vision  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Sep 19, 2014 8:41 PM UTC Clemson University suspended a controversial online course this week that was sent out to all students as a mandatory program at the beginning of the school year. The program, created by Campus Clarity for college and universities across the country, was designed to provide comprehensive training on sexual discrimination, harassment and assault, as well as address issues related to drugs and alcohol education. The university adopted the program in an effort to train students in Title IX, the federal law concerning gender discrimination in schools that has made headlines this past year as students have [protested the way schools across the country handle cases of sexual assault](http://time.com/84329/colleges-sexual-assault-investigations/). But students at the South Carolina school balked at some of the required questions that probed into the students sexual pasts, and the program was suspended Wednesday. One question asked how many times students had had sex in the past three months and with how many different people. The program also asked students about drinking habits and whether they participated in Greek life or were a member of an athletic team. Students were told the answers would be anonymous but had to log in with their student IDs in order to complete the training. “It’s not that I have an issue with being trained on Title IX,” one Clemson student [told the blog Campus Reform](http://campusreform.org/?ID=5923). “I have an issue with the personal questions that are asked, and the fact that I’m told it’s anonymous, but it’s clearly linked to my name, and it’s obviously through a third party so not only is my information that I’m going to be filling out—incredibly personal information regarding my sex life that I have issues with speaking about—it’s not only going to the university, it’s going to a third party company that I don’t know.” “Does the university need to know if I had oral or normal sex in the last three months after I’ve been drinking alcohol or using drugs recreationally or if I used a condom during?” another student complained. “They don’t need to know that for a gender equality questionnaire.” Campus Clarity did not respond to requests for comment. But its [privacy policy](https://www.campusclarity.com/legal/privacy%5Fpolicy) notes that student responses are not linked to their names or IDs. The university said it had been assured all information would be kept private and thought gathering anonymous information from students would both help the administration determine how well it was dealing with safety issues and dispel misconceptions about behavior in the student population.”Specifically with questions related to alcohol, relationships and sex, \[participants\] would get real-time feedback about how aggregate peers would respond to similar questions,” Shannon Finning, Dean of Students at Clemson University, told TIME. “That really is critical… in terms of breaking down this stereotype or dangerous illusion that students often have that everyone else is doing certain activities.” Research has shown that college students tend to vastly overestimate the number of their peers having casual sex or “hookups,” for example. A [study](http://www.usatodayeducate.com/staging/index.php/ccp/study-students-are-not-hooking-up-as-much-as-you-might-think) at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln found that 90% of college students thought their peers were “hooking up” two or more times per school year, when in reality only 37% of students reported doing so. Finning believes that seeing how other students responded will help students with making decision making processes. “How does my behavior compare with others? Maybe there are people making good decisions like me. Or, if I’m struggling with a decision, knowing there are others making different decisions, maybe I’ll have the courage to make an informed change,” she says. The White House has recently put pressure on college and universities to conduct surveys to better understand how frequently students are experiencing sexual assault. But protests against the program Clemson used calls into question the best way to gather such information while respecting student privacy. “Our student feedback from our new students who completed this program over the summer—over 6000 of them—was overwhelmingly positive,” Finning said. 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