SAN DIEGO COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Condom Concession

Among college professors there’s a maxim: At any given moment during a lecture, 10% of the students are thinking about sex. If that’s true, imagine the percentage on a Friday or Saturday night.

In this age of AIDS, students at San Diego State University want to make sure condoms are available on campus whenever the mood strikes, in case the abstinence argument fails. So they proposed putting condom vending machines in restrooms.

It’s hardly a radical idea. UC San Diego has them and even publishes a campus condom map. Cal State Fullerton and Cal State Northridge have the machines in men’s and women’s restrooms in their student unions.

It’s just common sense for an institution serving thousands of 18-22-year-olds, a group not exactly known for restraint, sexual or otherwise.

But SDSU President Thomas Day objected. He thinks having condoms available in the campus health center and the book store is enough. Day finds the condom machines tacky and an intrusion into the “privacy of strongly held individual views and values.”

But the health center closes at 5 p.m.; the bookstore at 7 most evenings. And while some students might find the machines intrusive, for others, a vending machine might make buying a condom easier.

The students and Day finally found ground for compromise. The Associated Students Council will purchase machines for student center restrooms, avoiding the necessity for a lease, which Day would have to sign.

The students deserve credit for perseverance.