U. of Tennessee Pulls State Money for ‘Sex Week’ Event

The University of Tennessee at Knoxville says it won’t provide state money to support a “Sex Week” event after some lawmakers questioned the use of public funds that had been earmarked for the program, according to The Knoxville News-Sentinel.

Some Republicans in the statehouse this week questioned the workshop’s subject matter, with one senator suggesting that a legislative committee should reconsider its approval of the campus’s budget, the newspaper reported. Among students, however, the event has generated little controversy.

Organizers will retain $6,700 in student-programming money that they had expected for the event, but will lose $11,145 that was supposed to come from academic programs and departments.

Jimmy G. Cheek, the campus’s chancellor, said in a written statement on Wednesday that while the university supports the students involved in the event, “we should not use state funds in this manner.” Joseph A. DiPietro, the system’s president, backed that decision, saying that some of the planned events were “not an appropriate use of state tax dollars.”