November 7, 2007
Stick figures having sex and a condom in every paper
Plan to distribute condoms via student newspaper at Cal State-Fullerton scuttled by administrators
The editors of California State University, Fullerton’s Daily Titan are upset because the university will not allow the student newspaper to distribute condoms in the Nov. 14 issue.
The university’s decision amounts to “adopting a very dangerous philosophy that denies a person the ability to protect themselves simply because that protection may offend some people,” said a Nov. 1 Daily Titan editorial.
Earlier this semester, the newspaper entered into an agreement with the university’s Student Health and Counseling Center for a promotion to help students avoid “unplanned pregnancies” and to lower the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases on campus, the Daily Titan claims. The “relatively innocuous promotion” would feature “stick figures having sex in the missionary position” and the insertion of “one condom into each of the 4,500 copies of the Nov. 14 Daily Titan,” according to the student newspaper. The promotion, said the Nov. 1 editorial, would have given the center publicity and enable the newspaper to “provide something more tangible than words and photos.”“It's amazing how such a small thing can create such a big problem,” said the editorial. Early last week, “someone complained to the university’s Student Affairs” – whether on account of the amorous stick figures or the condoms is unclear, said the editorial. In response, on Oct. 30, Howard Wang, Student Affairs’ associate vice president, announced, "We will not have the Health Center associated with that particular advertisement."
The following day, Wang, Student Affairs’ vice president Robert Palmer, and the health center’s management said that, instead of condoms, they would offer condom coupons, redeemable at the health center on Nov. 14 only. “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,” said the editorial.
Because of this decision, said the editorial, “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.” What’s more, the condom distribution has been advertised for a month on campus using “signs which bear the same stamp of approval from the Dean of Students office that every other piece of ‘free speech’ on campus has.”
In postings on the newspaper’s web site, one student said he doesn’t need the Daily Titan to be a “condom dispenser.” “Does the Daily Titan feel socially responsible by providing a condom within its pages? Nice try in boosting your readership on 11/14,” wrote the student.
Another student responded that the administration’s move is a censorship of the newspaper’s First Amendment rights. And, said the poster, “if you seriously think that two stick figures having sex is a crude image then turn your head away and don't look at it.”
In a further response, the first student noted that “it's the advertisement that's offensive. It makes CSUF look like a sex-obsessed campus, needing condoms because we can't control ourselves. Grow up people, we're adults now and not in high school.”