If you walked through the University Center Friday or Monday afternoon you may have noticed members of The Shield distributing condoms with copies of the new issue. This coincided with both Valentine’s Day and National Condom Week.
In a partnership with the Aids Resource Group of Evansville we were able to supply the students at USI with almost 1,500 condoms and ‘safe sex’ kits. We still have nearly 1,000 ‘safe sex’ kits ready for distribution to the USI community.
I’ve received some scrutiny (and some praise) from various members of the USI community regarding our condom distribution. On behalf of The Shield I would like to clarify some things.
The intent of The Shield was not to promote sexual promiscuity among the students and it wasn’t to align ourselves with undefined political agenda. We chose condoms because college students have sex.
It’s that simple; college students have sex.
A study done by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that 79.5 percent of college students in the 18 to 24 range have engaged in sexual intercourse.
There are 10,000 students attending this university, with 3,000 living in campus housing. These people, statistically speaking, have sex.
Take note, college students didn’t start having sex because the university’s student newspaper handed out condoms with the paper.
The CDC reported for 2008; 46,277 new syphilis cases, 1,210,523 new chlamydia cases and 336,742 new gonorrhea cases. There was 42,439 new cases of HIV in the US in 2008 and Indiana saw around 420 new AIDS diagnoses in 2008.
In addition to these statistics, one in two pregnancies in the US are unplanned according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
Clearly the most effective way at preventing STDs, unplanned pregnancy or AIDS is through abstinence. However, this isn’t a realistic solution to a problem that won’t solve itself.
Imagine how effective handing out abstinence-only education pamphlets with The Shield would have been.
Wearing a condom doesn’t offer full-proof protection but it is the most legitimate and practical option for a safe-sex experience. Sadly, only one in three acts of vaginal intercourse between single people involve the use of a condom, according to The Kinsey Institute.
If handing out condoms with a copy of The Shield helps lower any of the above statistics in any way, then I, as Editor in Chief, will feel validated in our choice to stand against STDs and unplanned pregnancy.
I will also feel validated if we helped some poor schmuck get lucky.
