Nearly 50 percent of Dartmouth students have engaged in sexual activity in the past year, according to a survey discussed last night at Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity.
The results of the survey, titled, "Sexual Practices at Dartmouth: When Do We Say Yes? When Do We Say No?" were presented by Director of Undergraduate Evaluation and Research John Pryor to an audience of approximately 50 students.
Pryor prefaced the data with information about the survey, which was given to 1000 randomly selected students in the spring of 1996.
He called it a "work-in-progress" that looks at student experiences with alcohol use, the College alcohol policy, eating disorders and sexual activity. It is a more extensive replacement of the Core Survey previously administered by the College.
Pryor said he wanted to put together "a survey that was a little more contemporary" than previous polls.
The survey was designed to look at various "risk behaviors" such as bulimia and binge drinking and see how they relate. Pryor hopes to gather information he can "give back to people doing health education" at Dartmouth.
Results of the survey found that while 46 percent of students are abstaining from sexual activity, 34 percent said that they have had sex with one partner. Of those 34 percent, nearly 20 percent admit to rarely or never using protection against sexually-transmitted diseases. Forty-nine percent report always practicing safe sex.
Although Pryor admitted that "we still don't have as large a percentage [always using protection] as we'd like to see," Dartmouth's figures for protected sex are above those of a national survey taken by the Centers for Disease Control.
Among students having sex with two partners, 41 percent always use protection while 10 percent rarely or never use it. Over 10 percent of students having sex with multiple partners rarely or never practice safe sex.
The survey looked at the numbers in each class that were engaged in sexual activity. While 66 percent of seniors report having had sex, only 37 percent of freshmen have. "That older students have more sexual activity than younger students is not terribly surprising," Pryor said.
Students answered questions about "hooking up" as well as sex. Only 29 percent of students answered that they had hooked up with someone in the last year, while 71 percent answered that they had not.
While students attending the speech expressed surprise at these figures -- especially given the fact a higher percentage of students reported having had sex than having hooked up in the past year -- Pryor believes the figures are accurate.
"We did leave [the question's meaning] to be up to the definition of the people responding," Pryor said. "If you are in a relationship and having sex with the person, people don't see this as hooking up."
The most popular reasons for hooking up cited by students were physical attraction to the other person and enjoying the physical sensation of sex. The strongest indicator that a person would not hook up was affiliation with a campus religious organization.
Students were also asked to give reasons for having or abstaining from sex . Again the most-cited reasons were physical attraction (91 percent) and physical enjoyment (86 percent). In addition 78 percent of sexually active students feel being in love with one's partner is a justification.
Pryor called it "good" that response percentages were low for questions that mentioned physical force and pressure. Four percent of students responded that they had sex because of verbal or physical pressure from their partner.
People who abstained from sex were fairly divided in their reasons for doing so. Thirty-three percent of students cited not knowing their partners well enough and 32 percent cited not loving their partner as reasons to abstain. Twenty-four percent said they would wait until later.
The influence of alcohol was mentioned in both categories. While 7 percent of students admit to having sex while intoxicated, 12 percent said being drunk prevented them from having sex.
In past years, the College trend has been towards a declining number of students having sex while intoxicated. Figures on alcohol use at Dartmouth and its ramifications will be available in November.
