On Friday, the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees approved measures to change the way funding is allocated to student programming.
The change comes after an in-depth report by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office found officials hadn't done enough to address serious concerns by lawmakers and others about an event known as 'Sex Week.'
Trustees approved eliminating student-organized programming, the Student Programming Allocation Committee (SPAC) and the opt-in process for fees.
UT said the decision means campus programming boards and registered student organizations will no longer receive the student programs and services fee to organize programs.
UT said trustees are scheduled to meet again in June, where UT Knoxville administrators will present a new process of how it will decide what programming to fund, including sex education, with input from students.
“As an administration and board, we are completely supportive of the right of free speech and the First Amendment and the right of student programming, which is critical to the success of students at our University,” UT Interim President Randy Boyd said.
In April 2018, legislative leadership asked the comptroller to look into the controversial 'Sex Week' event and determine whether state resources, either directly or indirectly, were used in the production of the event.
Sex Week started in 2013 on the Knoxville campus, and is sponsored by a registered student organization (RSO) called Sexual Empowerment and Awareness at Tennessee (SEAT). According to the report, the average membership of that group represents "less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the total enrollment at UTK."
The groups' goal is sex education through "innovative, captivating, and entertaining methods," according to its website. It's some of the "racier" methods and provocative program titles used over the years that have drawn the ire of UT lawmakers and others.
Opponents said they weren't happy with UTK's brand being associated with some of the events, and that student activity fees were used to fund them. Student organizers, at the time, said lawmakers were missing the point and that their event should not be politicized.
Lawmakers did pass a law in 2016 prohibiting state funds from being used to fund the event, but it did not specifically define what those funds were.
What the report found
As a registered student organization, SEAT is eligible to request funding from student activity fees, and it has in fact received the highest allocation of those funds in four of the past five years, including about $29,000 in both 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, the report found.
SEAT has also received gift funds, private donations and indirect benefits, such as use of campus facilities, for Sex Week, all of which are options for RSOs at UTK.
The report also found that a very small percentage of UTK students actually attend Sex Week activities. In 2018, where investigators could find the most complete records, 694 people attended one of the events, out of a student body of more than 28,000 students.
UTK is not the only college campus where Sex Week activities are promoted, but is the most controversial, according to the report. No other state legislature was found to have taken any action related to a university's Sex Week programming.
The University has worked over the years to balance the lawmakers' demands with the students' right to free speech on campus, asking them to "tone it down" but, according to the report, the group refused to compromise.
UT did start giving students the choice on whether to allocate their mandatory activity fee to student-organized programming (such as Sex Week), but the report said that change "was made reluctantly."
The report includes 14 policy considerations ranging from minor changes to campus policy to an outright ban on the event, and the university has agreed to implement a number of changes.
The University's initial response
In a letter signed by Interim UT President Randy Boyd and Interim Chancellor Wayne T. Davis to the state comptroller, leaders agreed that more action needs to be taken.
"While we want to support students, we also recognize that ‘Sex Week’ has caused frustration and embarrassment for legislators, alumni, many Tennessee citizens, and for us as administrators at UT, and we and the Board are committed to rectifying this," the letter reads.
"This student-led program on the UT Knoxville campus has generated such attention due to the explicit nature of some of its events. Over the past six years, various UT administrators and trustees have taken actions to address issues related to the event; however, we recognize that their approach, while focused on handling the issues, did not fix the problem and that too many events have been more about sensationalism than education," according to the letter.
The letter said they will implement some changes immediately, like changing the way funds are allocated to student organizations, publishing detailed information about funding received by student organizations, and charging those student organizations for the use of facilities that aren't funded by the student activity fee.
The comptrollers report will also be shared with the Board of Trustees, according to the letter, and will be part of the public discussion at the next trustee meeting on March 1.
The letter acknowledges, however, that Sex Week 2019 has already been funded under current guidelines.
"We are continuing to engage with the leaders of the student organization (SEAT) that organizes Sex Week, urging them to focus on 'human sexuality as a legitimate academic field of inquiry' as noted in page 1 of the Comptroller’s report, and alter the descriptions and promotion of the programs to be more educational in nature," the letter reads. "However, as the Comptroller’s report recognizes, previous campus discussions to that effect have not been successful."
On Wednesday afternoon, after Comptroller Justin Wilson presented the report to the Senate Education Committee, Chancellor Wilson released a statement to the university that provided more detail on the university's plans.
"Programming for students and the ability of our students to create and participate in registered student organizations is critical for our campus and something we feel strongly about offering," he stated.
He said leaders were working on a new process to include student input into what programs would be funded by the student activity fees, and to give leadership a greater oversight role. They will also be looking how other university's handle the process.
"This process is specific to how all funding decisions are made and does not impact anyone’s First Amendment rights, " he wrote.
Wilson said leaders hope the changes would be in place in time for fall semester programming decisions.
"We have nearly 500 registered student organizations on our campus. They enhance our community and provide opportunities for our students to learn, serve, and lead outside the classroom. We look forward to continuing to work with these organizations and the students who run them," he concluded.