Sexed-Up Extracurriculars

If you’ve seen the occasional stories on “sex weeks” at Yale and Harvard, you might be surprised to know that many colleges and universities officially devote more than seven days to the subject.  “In reality, I suspect many parents have little sense of the extent to which their son’s or daughter’s university promotes this sexual ideology—it’s not the kind of information included in university admissions packets or fact sheets,” Mary Rice Hasson wrote in an article which appeared in the winter edition of The Family in America, published by the Howard Center for Family, Religion and Society.

Hasson has done extensive research on just how far this trend extends. For example, the University of Oregon has developed an app that promises “the possibility for pleasure, intimacy, joy, and self-discovery, either with another person or by yourself.”

“Far from being a rogue adventure—perhaps the work of an isolated computer geek with a sex-obsessed mind—the app was a deliberate undertaking by the University of Oregon, involving the sponsorship of 11 campus departments, offices, or programs,” Hasson reported.  “In addition, the University spent $24,000 for Christian-bashing sex columnist Dan Savage to launch the product formally with a speech to students.”

“(His speech, laced with obscenities and graphic descriptions of sex acts such as ‘fisting,’ apparently thrilled the crowd—a sad reflection on Oregon’s student population.)”  The trend Hasson outlines extends from coast to coast.

“For example, the ‘lead health educator’ at the University of California, Berkeley is ‘Robin, the Sex Goddess,’  who provides interested students with four free consultations a year ‘to discuss personal sexual health issues, sexuality concerns, and more,’” Hasson relates. “The University distributes contraceptives to its students and maintains a resource list full of advocates for the sex-positive agenda.”

“Similarly, the Bates College (ME) Health Center offers students emergency contraception, birth control, and safer sex paraphernalia.”  Paraphernalia?

“Today’s parents must worry that the University Health Center will tweet a link to the latest post by ‘Robin, the Sex Goddesss,’ or that the University will hire the ‘Princess of Pleasure’ to teach students about ‘Orchestrating Orgasms’ and then allow her to offer students free vibrators, ‘restraints,’ and other kinky sexual props,” Hasson noted. “(The University of New Hampshire did exactly that and received nary a complaint.)”

If the parents aren’t worried, they should be: They’re paying for it. Hasson is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.