On Oct. 29, the community manager of Emerson Hall, a first-year dorm at Miami University, sent out an email containing provocative wording to advertise a safe sex education event. The email made it onto “Libs of TikTok’s” X (formerly Twitter) account and went viral overnight.
The email invited Emerson residents to the basement for “Spooky Sex,” which was an event discussing sex education and contraceptives, with sex toys as prizes.
The community manager did not respond to The Miami Student’s request for comment.
Cole Graham, a first-year business analytics major, said he didn’t relate to the backlash around the event but could see where it was coming from.
“I couldn’t care less,” Graham said. “I understand why it bothers people, but I saw the email and I kind of just disregarded it, it didn't really bother me that much.”
Graham wasn’t the only student to react to the email. Keshaun Hains, a first-year undecided major, was initially confused when he read it. He thought she spelled certain words wrong by accident.
“I was shocked that they would actually send that out to us,” Hains said. “I'm not going to lie, I think that was weird.”
Miami posted a statement apologizing for the email on Nov. 1, stating it “did not reflect the educational intent of the program.” According to the statement, “The Office of Residence Life is working to ensure that our staff create more professional and clear emails in the future.”
By Friday, the university’s Instagram post with the statement had received nearly 600 comments from current students, alumni and others. On X, the statement received more than 100 comments.
The Miami Student reached out to Rob Abowitz, the associate director of residence life, who did not immediately respond for comment.
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