This year freshmen are not the only ones who will be able to snag free condoms in their residence halls.
The Student Association is continuing its Condom Campaign by partnering with the Residence Hall Association to distribute condoms and literature on safe sex options.
“We recognized the popularity of the program from last year and
worked to eliminate the costs while increasing the efficiency of
the distribution of the condoms and accompanying literature by teaming up with the RHA,” SA President Nicole Capp said.
Capp added that under her leadership, the program has been expanded to include all residence halls and will feature literature provided by Student Health Service.
“Under SA leadership, all program materials will be obtained for free, saving students more than $1,000,” Capp wrote in an e-mail.
Scott Crawford, a junior and president of the RHA, said individual residential advisory councils (RACs) will decide how to distribute the condoms and literature, whether on individual floors or in boxes in dorm entranceways.
“Some RACs are really going above and beyond and purchasing their own condoms to give out,” Crawford said. He added that RACs in Ivory Tower have even purchased orange condoms to promote safe sex during Halloween. Crawford said RACs have purchased condoms on their own due to a delay in the arrival of the free condoms.
“The SA came to me with the idea for a great way of getting condoms into residence halls by using RACs to distribute them,” Crawford said. “(The program) changed from the SA having to pay for condoms to getting them at no cost and now the program is provided to all students, which I think makes more sense.”
In October 2006, former SA President Lamar Thorpe began the Condom Campaign by providing free condoms in the lobbies of freshman residence halls.
Junior Brand Kroeger, executive vice president of the SA, said the SA is obtaining the condoms from a nonprofit organization called The Great American Condom Campaign along with other, smaller programs that distribute condoms for free.
The Great American Condom Campaign began in fall 2005 and is run by volunteer professionals. According to the organization’s Web site, their mission is to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections by educating Americans about health issues related to condom use.
Kroeger said both he and Capp felt by not providing literature on sexually transmitted infections and abstinence in addition to the condoms, the program would be “cheating students out of information on sexual health they deserve.”
“We want students to know that condoms are not the only option available to students,” Kroeger said. “Abstinence is an option that students can embrace as well.”
Along with the SA’s initiative to provide sexual health information, an advertising campaign advocating abstinence has recently appeared on Facebook.
Upon clicking on one of the Facebook fliers depicting images and religious captions, individuals are led to a pro-abstinence website called everygwcolonial.com.
Though the site contains the GW mascot in the Web address and the GW colors on its Web page, it explicitly notes that it is “not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with The George Washington University.”
Everygwcolonial.com is part of a larger site, Everystudent.com, a religious site that “explores issues about college, life and what it might be like to know God.” Everystudent.com is developed by Campus Crusade for Christ International, an interdenominational Christian group.
“We wanted to create an opportunity for students to explore questions about faith and life and allow them to do that in the privacy of their own room and in a safe environment,” said Jayson Whelpley, a staff member for Campus Crusade for Christ International. “We’re not coming on campus trying to convert students. We just want to engage in dialogue, present our views and let them make their own decision.”
