BUZZ
Students ‘share stories with the incoming freshman class that touch on themes of setting boundaries, consent, agency, sexual assault’
Student leaders at Stanford University are upset that a decade-old, student-developed program intended to help freshmen “intentionally develop their sexual citizenship” is no longer a requirement at New Student Orientation.
According to The Stanford Daily, the “Beyond Sex Ed” program is “a narrative-based sexual education program” where students “share stories with the incoming freshman class that touch on themes of setting boundaries, consent, agency, sexual assault and choosing abstinence.”
Beginning in the fall, the only required sex ed program for new Stanford students will be an online “module.”
Last month, Undergraduate Senate Deputy Chair Minji Cho gave a presentation on why making Beyond Sex Ed optional was a bad idea.
Cho (pictured) said the decision will result in a campus “without a common culture around sexual health and well-being, fostering unequal knowledge on the subject.
“Students who are least likely to voluntarily attend a prevention program are probably the most disconnected from consent education and need these programs the most.”
According to the Daily, a UGS student survey showed 78 percent of respondents favored keeping Beyond Sex Ed mandatory, and a 2025 survey of almost 800 BSE session attendees showed “90% ‘reported they gained more empathy for others at Stanford’ and 87% ‘[felt] more acceptance of themselves, their values, and their timing.’”
Student leaders like Cho allegedly “were not consulted” about the change. Resident Assistant David Walton said that making BSE optional was “thoughtless [and] a disservice to future generations of Stanford students … and in some ways, irresponsible.”
Student Dash Beavers said “being a part of Beyond Sex Ed changed my life. I was able to understand parts of my life that had been incomprehensible for years prior.”
Anders Luffman, a “storyteller” with Beyond Sex Ed two years ago, claimed that after his BSE session “multiple people sought [him] to tell him “how much [his] story affected them.” He added “without Beyond Sex Ed, Stanford risks losing a part of itself.”
In addition, a Stanford administrator who wished to remain anonymous out of “fear of retaliation” advised officials at the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Education Title IX Office that backing students on the issue “would ‘[undermine] institutional trust’ and frustrate” them.
While BSE programming is not a legal requirement, [former Director of Positive Sexuality Brianna Booth] said “sexual violence prevention requires … more than an online training.” Incoming freshmen are required to complete a Title IX module prior to matriculating as students at NSO. Since September, Booth claims she was never asked to provide any input or data about the efficacy or success of the program.
At [a] April 29 UGS meeting, senator Anna Roth ’28 said that the unique structure of BSE is part of what makes it such an effective program. “Having … people come in and be so vulnerable, I think it really leaves an impact on people … I don’t remember anything from NSO, but I remember who spoke and what their story was,” Roth said.
A commenter to the Daily article who appears to be Stanford Law Professor Emerita Michele Dauber noted she’s otherwise sympathetic to BSE but said “whatever value Beyond Sex Ed subjectively had for some students, there is no empirical evidence that it ever reduced rates of sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, or harassment.
“I have asked for that evidence dozens of times, and been told there is none. That is entirely consistent with the findings of repeated climate surveys both before and after the program was created.”
MORE: College students can earn credit for attending ‘Queer Sex Ed Workshop’
