November 3, 2007

Protest Halts Condom Distribution By College Paper

By Daily Titan, Cal State-Fullerton (via UWIRE)

FULLERTON Early in the semester, the Daily Titan entered into a promotional agreement with the Student Health and Counseling Center. Together, we wanted to help prevent unplanned pregnancies and reduce the risk of college students contracting sexually transmitted diseases by inserting one condom into each of the 4,500 copies of the Nov. 14 Daily Titan.

This would be beneficial to all involved -- the center would receive publicity for the many services it provides and the Daily Titan would provide something more tangible than words and photos.

Now, the center seems to be backing out of the agreement.

Earlier this week, someone complained to the university's Student Affairs about our relatively innocuous promotion for the event featuring stick figures having sex in the missionary position. It's amazing how such a small thing can create such a big problem.

Tuesday, Howard Wang, associate vice president for Student Affairs and acting executive director for the center, said, "We will not have the Health Center associated with that particular advertisement."

Well, Wang, your wish has been granted.

Less than 24 hours after that statement, the management of the center, including Wang and Vice President for Student Affairs Robert Palmer, decided to distance themselves from the Daily Titan. They tried to alter the agreement and offer a "coupon" you can redeem at the center on Nov. 14 only, instead of actually providing condoms in the paper. They believe it is a better campaign to recruit students to visit their facility directly. What's more, they feel it will be less offensive.

Those in charge of the center are sorely mistaken. They are adopting a very dangerous philosophy that denies a person the ability to protect themselves simply because that protection may offend some people.

The bottom line is that fewer students will take the condoms. Out of the 4,500 condoms the Daily Titan was going to distribute to students by way of impulse grabs, only a small fraction will take the trip with their coupon to the center and get their free condom. Rather than 4,500 condoms in the pockets, wallets, purses and backpacks of students all over campus, the center will only give out a small fraction of this number through their coupon system. Some will be embarrassed, some will forget, some will be lazy and, thanks to the management of the center, these students will be more likely to get pregnant or contract AIDS.

After a month of posting signs promoting the event, signs which bear the same stamp of approval from the Dean of Students office that every other piece of "free speech" on campus has, the administration is now afraid of offending a few people. How could those who run the center not have thought of any of this before they entered into an agreement? Is the center really run that poorly? How could our poster be approved by the Dean of Students office, then retroactively censored? Is it the stick figures, or is it the condom that's offensive?

The center should be offering the Daily Titan a full refund for the cost of advertisements that are now irrelevant. The management of the center can't do something like this at the last minute and not suffer consequences. If they somehow escape financial consequences, then they should expect their reputation to be tarnished. The reluctant attitude of the university in the simple act of condom distribution should have every student questioning the credibility of the center.

The Daily Titan apologizes for being unable to provide what we promised weeks ago.

--Andrew Young