 "Photo:")
"Condoms new to campus vending machines" By: Bob Wright Date: February 3, 1988
Nowadays, students can get condoms from a variety of places around campus. Pop in to the Student Health Center, the Women's Center or the nearest 7-Eleven, and one can pick up a pack of prophylactics for personal pleasure.
In the spring of 1988, they were added to campus vending machines, tucked in between the M&M's and Snickers, in the hope of getting more students to have safe sex.
Condoms, available for purchase at various vending machines, were sold for $1.25 for a pack of three with spermicide.
It was part of a plan called "condoms on campus" that originated in the Student Health Center in an effort to make prophylactics more available to students, according to Tom Beckman, former director of the Student Health Center.
"The original idea, however, was that they were going to be in separate vending machines in more discreet locations, such as in restrooms, around campus," he said.
Despite the rather public location of the condoms, Beckman thought they would help decrease the risk of sexually transmitted infections.
"Anything that will increase the access of birth control devices and reduce the chance of spreading sexual disease is a good idea," he said.
The health center had already been selling condoms before they were placed in vending machines, and the sale of 12-packs of condoms actually doubled between the fall of 1986 to the fall of 1987.
The administration and former university President Robin Wilson also supported the condoms on campus.
Condoms are a fact of life in today's society, according to Wilson. He didn't think the sale of condoms on campus would increase or promote any negative activity.
"It's a little like saying the selling of smoke detectors encourages people to burn their houses down," he said.
The sale of condoms was a nonprofit service for the campus, and the money from sales went to the cost of restocking, Wilson said.
- Compiled by Megan McCourt
Be the first to comment on this article!