ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 19, 1996 TAG: 9611190113
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: S.D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
At Roanoke College in Salem, students can get condoms free at the school's health services center between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays. Or there's the local drugstore a couple of blocks away.
But after heated debate over the sexual activity of students, some students now say condoms should be much more accessible - as close as a walk down the hall of their dorm.
This week, the college's Student Government Association plans to gauge the sexual attitudes of the students in a written survey.
One of the questions will be whether the college should place condom vending machines in residence halls, said Jonathan Hamman, student government president.
If a majority of the students support the idea, Hamman says, he'll propose to the college's administration that it put condom machines in residence halls.
The SGA plans to get the surveys into students' mailboxes by the end of the week.
Roanoke College wouldn't be the first college in the valley to offer condoms in dorms. Hollins College put condom machines in the bathrooms of some of the larger dorms several years ago after students requested them, said Linda Steele, spokeswoman for the college.
She said a sticker on the machines reads: "Abstinence is the best choice. However, if you choose to be sexually active, protect yourself."
Virginia Tech experimented with condom machines in its residence halls, said Ed Spencer, assistant vice president for student affairs, but the machines weren't used much by students and became targets for vandalism.
The college eventually removed the machines, but "not as a message that we don't think [protected sex] is important," Spencer said.
"Students tend to get them on their own," he said. They buy them in larger numbers at the campus pharmacy or in local stores.
"It's like buying Cokes," he said. "If you have a refrigerator, you'd rather buy them in bulk."
The debate on Roanoke College's campus started in September. Several letters to the editor of the campus newspaper, "The Brackety-Ack," spurred heated arguments from students and faculty on all sides of the issue.
Some said the college should provide condoms in residence halls as a public health responsibility.
After reading articles in the campus paper during the school's parents' weekend, one mother wrote a letter to the editor in support of condom machines in residence halls. Students are having sex in reality, she said, and the college should teach responsible sex.
But other students and professors have said that by putting condom machines in the dorms, the school would be condoning premarital sex.
Roanoke College, a Lutheran school, officially takes the position that premarital sex is wrong, said Mac Johnson, vice president of student affairs. "But we're not Big Brother and seeing what people do in their rooms," he said.
Johnson said if a proposal were made by the SGA, the college's vice presidents would consider it. But because holiday breaks are only a few weeks away, no action is likely until the spring semester begins in January.
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