Student brings up topic at SGA meeting that sparks debate among administration and students.
Madelin Ryan, Viking Fusion Reporter
A discussion at the weekly Student Government Association meeting sparked controversy among students and the administration about the lack of free condoms in the LADD Center.
A few weeks ago Marcus Ghee, Junior, brought up the fact that the health center does not provide free condoms to students.
He argued that if the college was teaching students about consent, they should also be providing those materials to advocate for healthy and safe sex.
“Consent goes in hand with sex. A lot of times when you’re uneducated about sexual health and what you should do that leads to not being educated about consent with sex as well.” Said Ghee. “I couldn’t believe we were teaching one and not the other.”
As the discussion in SGA continued, President Briggs released a statement saying the college is not responsible for providing personal health care items and advocated for healthy relationships.
Tedric Palmer, SGA President, read the following statement from President Briggs aloud at the SGA meeting.
“The college cares about the health and well-being of its students, but does not take that to mean that it should provide students with personal health care products, including free condoms. No different from other young adults who are working, college students are responsible for obtaining their own personal health care products.
“Some might argue that the college should offer free condoms as a show of support for individual autonomy and freedom of choice with regard to sexual behavior. However, providing free condoms also seems to condone an indiscriminate and unhealthy “hook-up” culture and that would send a disturbing educational message. While condoms provide useful protection for sexual activity, risk-reduced sex (or safe sex) should not be confused with relationally mature and healthy sex. Healthy sex occurs in the context of a caring, trusting, informed, enduring, and emotionally intimate relationship.”
Students responded by saying that there are other personal health care products provided in the LADD Center such as STD testing, birth control prescriptions, and tampons.
In order to promote the student voice, Tedric Palmer created a committee on the issue.
“The committee is looking at things to help change the policy like statistics and coming up with reasons as to why we should have them,” Palmer said. “I’ve talked to Dean Heida and if we have good enough reasons, we can change the policy if that’s what the student body wants.”
However, not all the students feel the college should provide free condoms to students.
Ben Umberger, sophomore, believes providing for physical ailments should be more of a priority for the school than promoting safe sex.
“The LADD Center provides cough medicine if you’re sick but at the end of the day those are a necessity whereas sex is not a necessity,” Umberger said.
Despite differing views on free condoms, both sides agree that Berry College should do more about sex education for students.
“A lot of people come from places that teach abstinence only and if that’s a choice that you make that’s fine, but abstinence does not equal education,” Ghee said.
He advocated for continuing the education past Freshman year. First year students are required to attend MADD Theatre and “Can I Kiss You” which promote healthy, safe sex and consent. But, after the first semester that education is not promoted as much.
Ghee received strong support from the student body when he introduced the topic and said very few people came up to him saying it’s not necessary.
“They need to take a hold of it and make sure that people are educated because at some point something STD wise could begin to spread,” Ghee said. “We all know that people are having sex and if no one is wearing a condom or not wearing it properly, that’s what leads to spreading STDs.”
An Evans Professor leaves a bag of free condoms on a second floor table for students to take if they need them. However, it is believed that the professor purchases those from their own money or money from an organization to provide them to students. Students think it should not be left to a professor to supply condoms out-of-pocket.
Though the conversation has subsided at SGA meetings, students are still advocating for policy change.
“We are keeping up to date with the situation and it might not be done quickly but there is work being done,” Palmer said. “It takes a lot of work together with students and it’s going to take some time for that to work correctly but I know the student body is really passionate about this.”