Sending off your baby to college at Clemson, your eyes may be a bit teary but you have the comfort of knowing that this fine institution of higher learning will demonstrate the care and sensitivity you would demand be shown your child.  And it will be on the test.

[T]he South Carolina university is asking students invasive and personal questions about their drinking habits and sex life as part of what they’ve billed as an online Title IX training course.

“How many times have you had sex (including oral) in the last 3 months?” asks one question.

“With how many different people have you had sex (including oral) in the last 3 months?” asks another.

Invasive? Well, yeah, but then, this is college and sex (including oral) is part of the game.

“We believe you’ll enjoy the assignment,” the email, provided to Campus Reform, reads. “It is an engaging and informative online course, created with students for students. It will provide you with useful information regarding sexual violence and relationships. The course promotes a healthier and safer campus environment.”

No doubt some will enjoy the assignment, more so than the sex it asks about perhaps.  But the reason for such intrusive questions becomes clear as the dots get connected.

Although the email said that the course—which also asks if a student is a part of Greek life or an athlete—was “created by students,” it is actually a product of CampusClarity, “[a] Title IX and Campus SaVE Act education program that combines sexual assault and substance abuse prevention in a comprehensive online training program.”

This is the outgrowth of the well-intended push to stop the evils, real and perceived, on college campuses.  Given the assumptions upon which it’s based, that there is an epidemic of sexual assault fueled by drugs and drink, it’s hardly a stretch that the inquiry assumes debauchery to run rampant.  So your baby must participate.

But what if your baby says “no”?

In an email to one student that was obtained by Campus Reform, the school says that failure to complete the course will be a violation of the “Student Code of Conduct, General Student Regulation 8: Failure to Comply with Official Request.”

Schools have rules, you know, and this was one of them.  Violating the code of conduct is no way to start off the semester.  But what’s the harm in answering, even if it’s distasteful?

“It’s not that I have an issue with being trained on Title IX,” one Clemson student told Campus Reform in an interview. “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.”

It has to be linked to the student’s name, or they won’t know who completed the mandatory course and who didn’t and needs to be punished.  But assurances of anonymity are good enough, because nothing on the internet, or in college, or anywhere anymore, that’s linked to a name doesn’t eventually surface, right?

Beyond the intrusiveness, the inappropriateness of these questions, combined with the potential loss of privacy, there is another issue raised by Clemson political science professor, Dr. J. David Woodard:

“This is not reflective of anything about campus awareness,” Woodard said. “All it is is just brainwash, it’s propaganda.”

Among the gaping holes in the claims that there is an epidemic of sexual assault in college, and as the White House Task Force noted, even while assuming an epidemic before there is evidence to support such a conclusion, there is a desperate need for empirical data.  This is one way to get it, by forcing students to provide answers to incredibly personal sexual questions upon pain of discipline.

Is this really necessary?  Are things so bad, are the risks so overwhelming, that the balance tilts in favor of forcing students to disclose their most personal information?

The training also makes the claim that one in four women will be sexually assaulted while in college, which according to one student Campus Reform spoke to, instills an atmosphere of fear on campus. According to the latest crime statistics provided by Clemson, two forcible sex offenses were reported in 2012, four in 2011, and two in 2010.

On the bright side, they only ask about sex (including oral) with other human beings.  If it was the University of Kentucky, it might have included sex with goats.

After Campus Reform broke the news of these questions, Clemson has suspended its program:

“Required Title IX online training has been suspended pending elimination of certain questions that were associated with a training module provided by a third-party vendor,” the email, sent at 11:42 p.m., said. “Clemson University will eliminate these questions. We apologize for any concern and inconvenience this has caused.”

So no goats. No sex (including oral) questions, for now.  But the epidemic continues, because reasons.  Now you have another reason to be teary-eyed when you drop your baby off to start another semester of higher learning.