Flip the Script, a sexual violence prevention program cut earlier this year, has been reinstated, according to Vice Provost for Institutional Equity, Access and Community Patrick Dunkley on behalf of Provost Jenny Martinez.

“After pausing to reassess the program, the University will provide funding for Flip the Script and Going off Script, a companion program for men, for the next three years,” Dunkley wrote to The Daily. He added that Martinez asked him to respond as the leader of the office managing these programs. 

The program’s removal sparked backlash amid the ongoing Cornell Seven case, which has energized campus conversations about sexual assault.

Flip the Script operates under Stanford’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response & Education (SHARE) Title IX and VI office. As of Wednesday evening, the office appears to have begun referring to itself solely as the Title IX and VI Office on its website. The office declined a request for comment, citing Dunkley’s response as sufficient.

Designed for college-aged women, the 12-hour training program was developed and tested by scientists at Canadian universities. It has been found to potentially reduce the risk of rape among college-aged women by almost 50%.

The Title IX and Title VI Office first piloted the program at Stanford in 2018. It paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic before restarting in fall 2025. The program drew only a few participants in its first quarter back, according to Kirsten Lees ’27, a previous program facilitator. The spring cohort saw program enrollment grow to nearly 15 students, Lees said.

Claire Birge ’27, a previous program facilitator, said the program received “overwhelmingly positive” feedback from participants. Lees cited a survey that asked participants whether they enjoyed the course, and said all students responded “strongly agree” except for one student who responded “agree.” 

Birge added that learning strategies to mitigate sexual assault felt “empowering,” while Lees described facilitating the program as “the most human I felt on this campus.”

Michele Dauber, an emerita professor at Stanford Law School, met with Provost Jenny Martinez last Friday to advocate for the reinstatement of the program. Dauber is a nationally recognized advocate for Title IX compliance and campus sexual assault reform. She also led the successful recall campaign against the judge who sentenced Brock Turner in the Chanel Miller sexual assault case.

“As soon as I read about the program being halted I reached out to the Provost and scheduled an appointment. We met for over an hour and as a result the program has been restarted effective immediately,” Dauber wrote to The Daily. “I appreciate her listening thoughtfully and taking action.”

Martinez also agreed to rehire the past program facilitators, according to Dauber. However, as of Wednesday evening, past student staff have not yet been formally notified of the program’s reinstatement, according to Lees.

Dauber and Martinez discussed a goal of 300 freshmen and sophomores opting into the program per year on a voluntary basis. This number was drawn from the current class size for sororities, Dauber wrote. Targeting Greek life, was important in her view because women in sororities are 3 to 4 times more likely to experience sexual assault. 

Lees and Dauber believe the next challenge will be reigniting interest in the program after the hiatus.

“We still have the hard job of increasing participation — a job that this halt in the program made worse, unfortunately,” Dauber wrote.

According to Dunkley, the University paused the program in part because of low enrollment, at just 23 students total last academic year. Dunkley said the program’s pause allowed the University to “reassess how the program fits within Stanford’s broader portfolio of trainings,” he wrote.

Birge said the abrupt changes to the program’s status halted its momentum, which was steadily rebounding from a hiatus of several years.

“We started with a couple students in the fall and then had a lot more by spring and word was getting out about it,” she said. 

Dauber wrote that the plan to ramp up the program’s scale remains ambitious, and will require “a tremendous effort by the University in terms of outreach and incentives,” adding that Martinez “committed to making strong efforts to recruit participants and I am committed to help her as much as I can.”

Dunkley reiterated this commitment, writing that the programs will be reinstated “with a plan to broaden [their] reach.” 

The stakes are high, Dauber noted. Nearly 1 in 3 undergraduate women and 1 in 12 men experience rape or sexual assault over four-plus years in American colleges and universities. 

“Stanford isn’t all that different to Cornell or any other place where something like this can occur,” Lees said. 

Following the University’s decision to cut Beyond Sex Ed, a mandatory, narrative-based program during New Student Orientation, Lees said there remains a gap in students’ sexual education. The Title IX and Title VI Office implemented a new optional “Upstander Intervention” training in October.

“Flip the Script is the only known program that is evidence-based and reduces rates of sexual assault dramatically,” Dauber wrote. While Going Off Script could help expand outreach beyond women, “the sad fact is that there’s no known evidence-based program for men that is proven to reduce the rate of assault like that,” she added.

In response to the cutting of sexual education programs at Stanford, Lees and other students, such as Nini Khanna ’28, started RRCAS (Resisting Rape Culture at Stanford). 

She said one of the organization’s goals was to set a universal, evidence-based standard for sexual assault prevention training at Stanford.

“In my ideal world,” Lees said, Flip the Script is “something that all female-identifying students have to participate in as their sexual assault prevention training, and adjacently Going Off Script for male-identifying students, recognizing that it is gendered, and that is not ideal, but it is based on science.”

Still, Dauber described the recent change as a step forward.

“We need action now and this program is the action we need,” she wrote. “I’m glad the Provost sees that and is backing the restart of the program.”