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Drew University changes policy due to budget concerns and theft
BY JILLIAN RISBERG
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Safe sex is no longer free at Drew University. Despite staggering tuition of nearly $40,000, which frequently leaves students strapped for cash, the college has stopped a free condom service due to budget cuts and theft.
On Tuesday, some on-campus students called it a flimsy explanation for eliminating such an important benefit and urged the administration to reconsider the ruling.
Drew spokesman David Muha said student health services made the decision after some people helped themselves to large quantities of condoms and another ripped off the whole basket, reports the Daily Record.
Along with the condoms, at a cost of several hundred dollars, the school has cancelled free Gatorade and ibuprofen.
Students can still ask resident assistants for free condoms, but many are uncomfortable with that idea, guarding their right to privacy and preferring instead to request one from a nurse or anonymously pick it up from the health center.
The university has long struggled with how best to provide protection to the student population when there have been repeated thefts.
According to Muha, several years ago they charged a nominal fee for condoms in dormitory bathrooms and the dispensers were vandalized. At the same time, the department was tossing expired condoms. He says the system just wasn't working.
Though condoms offer the cheapest and most readily accessible form of birth control other than abstinence, students who are jobless or on a strict budget may not be able to afford the $4.49 (3-pack) to $24.99 (variety pack) price tag at Walgreens or $4.99 (3-pack) to $23.49 (variety pack) at CVS.
With STDs on the rise and no cure in sight for HIV, it is troubling to think that students might scrimp on condom use if they feel they have no other option.
Stephen Thompson, 21, a senior from Tampa, Fla. told the Daily Record that everyone should be allowed free access to safe sex materials.
