NOM BLOG

Victory: "Undergraduates For A Better Yale" Prompt President to Revise Campus Policy on "Sex Week"

 

Pioneering students at Yale are hard at work to improve the campus culture and promote better dialogue about issues related to sexuality. They're also making significant progress on doing away with some of the infamous practices associated with Yale's annual "Sex Week".

The undergraduates jump-started a dialogue by publishing an op-ed in the Yale Daily News: "Change the Climate, End Sex Week" and followed up by creating a student-run organization: Undergraduates For A Better Yale.

Their efforts are already bearing fruit. In a September 15th report by an Advisory Committee on Campus Climate to the President and Fellows of Yale, the committee recommended that the university change its campus policies regarding Sex Week:

We heard over and over from students, faculty, and students that “Sex Week at Yale,” a student-sponsored event, is highly problematic. A student-initiated event begun in 2002, it has described itself as “a campus-wide interdisciplinary sex education program.” Over time, this event clearly has lost the focus of its stated intention. Although “Sex Week at Yale” continues to promote consideration of some serious topics, like international sex trafficking, in recent years it has prominently featured titillating displays, “adult” film stars, and commercial sponsors of such material. We recommend that “Sex Week at Yale” be prohibited from using Yale’s name and any Yale facilities. We recognize the role of events that promote healthy discourse and help students explore issues of intimacy, love, and relationships as they relate to their own lives but feel that the most recent iterations of “Sex Week at Yale” cannot accomplish this.

Yale President Richard Levin echoed the committee's findings and recommendations in his response.

Bravo to Undergraduates for a Better Yale for moving conversation about these important topics in a far more positive and uplifting direction!

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