The Hawk

Issue date: 9/19/07 Section: Opinion

Although it was a few months ago, I remember orientation quite well: all those "trust-building" activities, my own whining, and what seemed like hours of alcohol safety talks and such things.

Whatever. It was all well and good, but when I compared my orientation with those from other schools, I was struck by how one-dimensional it was. The focus concern of the whole affair was, predictably, the dangers of alcohol. While I do not seek to belittle this concern, I believe that the issue of sex, especially sex under the influence, needs to be addressed at the very least during orientation.

It seems quite childish and irresponsible to me that the Jesuit order should take up the responsibility of running a university and address dangers such as alcohol poisoning, and safety around campus, but notice an issue that is certainly central to the human spirit, the same spirit that the Jesuit mission is supposed to protect and nurture. Isn't that is what makes our college experience so much more valuable?

However, I'm not arguing for a few lectures on sexual abstinence. It is now a fact according to the American Medical Association that "the overly simplistic 'just say no' approach to teens and sex is unrealistic and dangerous." I could not agree more, especially as that approach does not address the additional problems that intoxication throws into the mix.

The program should be organized in this way: Each orientation group should break off separately according to sex and discuss the source material I have already mentioned. We shouldn't be teaching just safe sex anymore; that isn't enough. I would even go as far as to say that abstinence isn't enough anymore.

Given the freedoms available at college, kids may be tempted to have sex. It's possibly going to be unprotected, and may even be with someone random at a party. It should be brought to student's attention that frequent, safe sex with a steady partner has many emotional and physical benefits ranging from reduced depression and a healthier immune system to an improved level of physical fitness, according to About.com. What this will do is lower the incidences of sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, and college dropout rates, and in my opinion, most importantly, the painful emotional stress that effects a person that is new to a pattern of promiscuous sexual relationships.

I believe the University is holding itself back by failing to be responsible administrators and see the problems, all of them, that lie in front of their faces. If they continue to hold the old Catholic stance on sex education, they will only be hurting themselves and their student body in the process. If the administration knows what is good for their students, they will institute a comprehensive sex education program of a kind that has been instituted in more progressive colleges across the country such as Carnegie Mellon and NYU and will stray from the Catholic hard-line sex education. It probably isn't the ideal way in their eyes, but it certainly is the best way.

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