You’re in your dorm and about to have sex, but you don’t have a condom. Now you’re faced with choices. You could travel as many as nine floors to the monitored front desk hoping there’s a condom, or continue with unprotected sex. You could not have sex at all.
These should not have to be the only choices. By redistributing and expanding the location of condom dispensers to every floor, sex at UM can become a more safe and private act that students can shamelessly have.
A majority of students want condoms on campus, but according to a study by the American Sexually Transmitted Diseases Association, 20% feel embarrassed to get them and even more students feel embarrassed to keep condoms with them.
Embarrassment is natural, but students who are embarrassed to high levels should reflect on whether he or she should even have sex. Condoms do make sex safer, but their accessibility does not necessarily mean every student should be having sex simply because the barrier to reaching a condom has been eliminated. Embarrassed students should not feel obligated to have unprotected sex solely because of their fear of stigma associated with sex.
At UM, the primary source for condoms is on the first floor of every residential college, typically monitored by at least one employee. Because of this direct line of contact, students may be embarrassed by both getting a condom, and the lack of anonymity when grabbing one.
Nobody is accusing HRL staff of silently judging anyone who grabs a condom. But why create this feeling of embarrassment when it can easily be eliminated?
Redistributing condoms results in less anxiety and provides students with a seamless way of getting them.
A study by the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health showed that of the 212 participants, 69% recently participated in unprotected sex, with one of the most common reasons being not planning to have sex or running out of contraception.
The residential colleges are by no means as small as 212 people. Pearson and Mahoney hold about 700 students respectively across seven floors, Ibis holds about 450 across nine floors and Coral holds about 420 across 10 floors.
For those on higher floors, that 69% who have unprotected sex is likely to be even higher when deciding to take a trip to the front desk.
To test how inconvenient this trip would be, I timed myself taking both the stairs and elevator in Mahoney from floor seven to the condom dispenser. It took me 2 minutes and 48 seconds to take the elevator and 3 minutes and 38 seconds to walk.
When I arrived at the condom dispenser, it was empty.
While I wasn’t planning on having sex during my mini-experiment, those who take this trip with that purpose now have to ask an employee for a condom or turn back around empty handed. Next time, they might not even bother making the trip at all.
This problem disappears if UM adds a condom dispenser to each floor. They should also supply condoms to RAs to make sure that the dispensers are constantly filled.
Even though the front desk is the primary way to get condoms, it’s not the only way.
UM offers a Safer Sex Express program that allows students to order free external condoms, internal condoms, dental dams and lubricants. While the process typically takes about two days, students collect their orders inside private lockers, maintaining their anonymity.
According to the University of Miami, other condom locations include “at Student Health Service in the Lennar Foundation Medical Center, at the Herbert Wellness Center, the Donna E. Shalala Student Center and at Whitten University Center.” These are all locations that are not quickly accessible right before having sex.
Despite making safe sex more accessible, relocating condoms will not eliminate unprotected sex. People should be able to choose how they have sex. But contraceptives do not exist to stop unprotected sex; they exist for those who choose to use them. If relocating them increases the likelihood that someone will be safer, then UM should make this change.