The Student Assembly discussed controversial efforts to provide higher-quality condoms to students and confronted issues raised by the steering committee's recommendations during their weekly meeting last night.
Jared Thorne '03 and Stephanie Bonan '03 gave a short presentation on their investigation into making better condoms available to students.
In a poll of the sophomore class this summer, 78 percent of the students who responded to the poll said they favored having condoms available in bathroom vending machines.
Thorne said the number of unplanned pregnancies and abortions on campus is "astonishing," and not improving upon the current system of offering "brand-X" condoms would be "preposterous."
Thorne and Bonan said they have already contacted several condom vendors but have not yet secured an agreement.
"Originally, we wanted to get it done by the beginning of Spring term, but that's not going to happen," Thorne said, adding that he is confident something will be ready by the end of this academic year.
Presently, they are in the process of contacting other Ivy League schools to see how they handle condom availability.
Thorne and Bonan are also planning to meet with former surgeon general C. Everett Koop '37 to discuss the situation.
After the presentation, discussion turned to issues regarding Recommendation Four in the steering committee report, which deals with making major changes to the Coed Fraternity Sorority system.
Most of the discussion focused on issues such as enforceability of the Principle of Community and recommendations for restrictions on parties.
Although Amit Anand '03 told The Dartmouth after the meeting that he characterized the Assembly's discourse as "more constructive than fireside chats," others felt differently.
Former Assembly president Josh Green '00 told the assembled students at the open meeting, "If you think change needs to occur, let's talk about the way change can be achieved rather than simply criticizing the recommendations."
Although praise for most aspects of the recommendations discussed was scarce, some students spoke positively of the clause calling for more comprehensive sexual abuse advising.
One of the concerns expressed by students was that the report did not make a clear distinction between rushing and hazing, adding that there is a difference between wearing silly clothes and drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol.
Other students said they were worried that the Principle of Community was too vague in its current form to act as a judiciary concept -- especially to be used in deciding the fate of certain fraternities in the review of the CFS system tentatively scheduled for 2005.
