Does the Availability of “Sexual Health Services” Make Some College Campuses Healthier than Others?
In Issue 8, we are proposed the question of whether the availability of “sexual health services” determines whether a college campus is healthier than others. Side A is presented by David Hall, a graduate professor of human sexuality at Widener University. Side B is presented by Jens Alan Dana, a student and school newspaper editor at Brigham Young University, which was ranked lowest in the Trojan survey. This right away seems like a faulty argument and not because they were ranked the lowest but because I feel like Side B’s presenter does not have enough credentials. With a survey done by Trojan, testing which universities in the States were sexually healthy, the findings were all over the place. Yale being #1, to Harvard being #43 and our sister school, Notre Dame, being #99.
Hall begins his argument with statistics about what age boys and girls have sex for the first time. The average tends to be around 17. This being stated, Hall believes that colleges and universities have a responsibility to help their students make good sexual decisions. He then goes on to talk about the Trojan study and how it may have its flaws but it is in the best interest of not only the company but also the schools to have available services to students who are in need of them. Abstinence-only education has been seen to fail so having this available resources helps protect these students from possible STI’s, pregnancy, or other factors that are involved with sex.
Dana beings their argument with a metaphor about fishermen and drawing fish to his bait. He then relates this to college freshman being baited by mediocre marketing. They then go on to talk about the reason they were ranked the lowest in the Trojan study.
Personally, Hall’s argument won this debate. The reason being was that I felt like Dana was just whining about why they got such a low score and how unfair it was that they were now seen as a sexually unhealthy university which they weren’t. While it may not entirely be their fault that BYU received straight 0’s on their scores, it does bring up some kind of concern. If students aren’t able to receive free condoms, options of birth control, HIV and STD testing, and so on, well just how sexually healthy are the students. Again this whole ranking is flawed, mostly because, well yea the resources are there but are the students actually taking advantage of them. The one thing colleges need to do is inform their students of such services. To be honest I’m not even sure St. Edward’s offers any of those resources and if they do I would love if they would advertise it a bit more. I do know we have sexual abuse awareness, but not sure about HIV testing or condoms.