Spring Break
Sex, STIs and responsibility
Caitlin Myers, Contributing Writer, cmyers@smu.edu
Issue date: 4/16/08 Section: News
It's two in the morning, and Christine is cold. She walks into a Dallas 24-hour CVS, her heels clicking against the linoleum floor. She goes back to the pharmacy area, grabs a purple box of "Her Pleasure" Trojans and heads to the checkout. She adds a small bag of Cheetos at the last minute.
"You'll never believe what I just had to do," the 19-year-old business major said once back inside her car and on her cell phone, fuming to her best friend. "My boyfriend just made me go buy condoms."
Students at SMU have sex. It's a fact. In dorm rooms, cars, Greek houses and apartments. There are the legendary tales of liaisons in Fondren Library and rumors about the front steps of Dallas Hall. There's no denying it; students know a lot about "doing it."
But while sex may be popular, Christine and the other students interviewed for this story refused to speak about it without a promise of anonymity. Their reasons included fear of sorority repercussions, a clash with religious views and a belief that sex is a personal topic. In lieu of their full names, middle names, ages and majors have been used to identify them.
SMU Health Educator Megan Knapp says this hesitation to talk translates into an overall naivety about the real consequences of sexual relations - something that SMU is looking to address with more accessible, relatable sexual education efforts.
"I think we create a naive group of men and women if we're not training them and letting them know what the risks are," Knapp said. "It's real, it's here, it's now. It's not in some, for lack of a better term, whorehouse in Dallas."
But despite years of drilling some form of sexual education down Generation Y's throats, be it pro-abstinence programs or safe-sex seminars, one key component seems to have been lost in the shuffle. Who is supposed to take responsibility for staying safe - the man or the woman? And in college, how do students learn about safe sex? How do they communicate with one another about it?
"You'll never believe what I just had to do," the 19-year-old business major said once back inside her car and on her cell phone, fuming to her best friend. "My boyfriend just made me go buy condoms."
Students at SMU have sex. It's a fact. In dorm rooms, cars, Greek houses and apartments. There are the legendary tales of liaisons in Fondren Library and rumors about the front steps of Dallas Hall. There's no denying it; students know a lot about "doing it."
But while sex may be popular, Christine and the other students interviewed for this story refused to speak about it without a promise of anonymity. Their reasons included fear of sorority repercussions, a clash with religious views and a belief that sex is a personal topic. In lieu of their full names, middle names, ages and majors have been used to identify them.
SMU Health Educator Megan Knapp says this hesitation to talk translates into an overall naivety about the real consequences of sexual relations - something that SMU is looking to address with more accessible, relatable sexual education efforts.
"I think we create a naive group of men and women if we're not training them and letting them know what the risks are," Knapp said. "It's real, it's here, it's now. It's not in some, for lack of a better term, whorehouse in Dallas."
But despite years of drilling some form of sexual education down Generation Y's throats, be it pro-abstinence programs or safe-sex seminars, one key component seems to have been lost in the shuffle. Who is supposed to take responsibility for staying safe - the man or the woman? And in college, how do students learn about safe sex? How do they communicate with one another about it?
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