Posted on 10/09/2005 3:23:05 PM PDT by billorites
Anthony Zizos was surprised this week when the University of New Hampshire student government called for condoms to be sold in dorm vending machines.
As UNH's assistant vice president for business affairs, one of Zizos' many duties is to oversee the school's vending machine contract and he didn't recall asking vending company Canteen to stop stocking condoms.
Until two or three years ago, students were able to walk to the snack machines in their dorms and campus apartments and buy condoms whenever they wanted. But the vending tubes that once held condoms now prop up Milky Ways and potato chips.
No one at UNH is really sure when or why condoms left their glass vending dispensers.
So when Zizos heard that the UNH Student Senate passed a resolution Sunday requesting that prophylactics be available in dormitory and campus apartment snack machines, he said he reviewed some paperwork and didn't find a reason why there are no condoms in the machines.
"The vending machine company simply stopped stocking the machines with them," Zizos said. "The fact that they're no longer being sold in the vending machines went unnoticed."
He said he planned to call Canteen yesterday and get the condoms put back in campus vending machines in the near future.
"I don't understand the genesis of the decision (to stop selling condoms in vending machines,)" Zizos said. "It sounds like a decision that might have been made locally at the lowest levels of the vending company. I don't even know if the senior managers might know of why they are no longer in the vending machines."
Zizos said whatever the reasoning for the missing condoms — if there was any — it is likely that campus vending machines will soon be restocked with prophylactics.
"At the end of the day, I'm not sure that the reasoning for them no longer being sold is as significant as the fact that the university would like them sold in the vending machines just as they once were," Zizos said.
Students can get free condoms at campus infirmary Health Services and many resident assistants and property managers who live in and oversee campus housing keep a supply of rubbers for their residents. Students can also walk to several local businesses and buy condoms.
But UNH Sophomore Katherine Steere, who chairs the Student Senate council for Health and Human Services that sponsored the condom resolution, said it is more realistic that students will practice safe sex if condoms are available whenever the moment strikes. Various national studies show up to 74 percent of college students are sexually active.
"It also creates some personal responsibility because students can go to the vending machines and take care of (getting condoms) ourselves. We are adults."
"Well, sure. But I think a condom would work better."
:^)
Maybe they stopped selling because students weren't buying. If they can make more money on junk food, why should they clutter up their snack machines with condoms?
Should be a requirement in the blue states.
If you wanted to make money in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, you would put gerbils in the vending machines.
I assume you slip a couple of condoms to your daughter and her boyfriend before they go out on a date. Also, it's excellent planning to have started her on the pill as soon as she reached puberty. After all, it's far better to be 'safe' than assume or expect any one to resist any temptation.
not if the female has to hold the quarter between her knees all the time.
If the school gives them away free at several locations, how much money does Canteen stand to make selling them?
very good idea,, totally agree
Absolutely...the less socialist New Englanders; the better.
I suppose condoms and potato chips both are contained in the broad category of "salty snacks."
LOLOL!!!
I assume most of these students aren't married. Look i'm not naive. College kids will make stupid choices with their bodies and there is no legal or moral way of stopping them. It's their lives. But if they want to be stupid they can go down to the drug store and buy a pack of condoms, the school shouldn't be aiding, abetting, and promoting pre-martial sex.
While I don't accept the "California morality" whereby parents put their daughter on the pill while in High School, I have no problem with having contraceptives available in the vending machines. Nevertheless, you can usually get condoms more easily than sudafed these days.
You send a pretty clear message to your daughter. I guess there must be parents that help keep up the numbers for STDs and teen pregnancies. Are you aware of the failure rate of condoms? That the pill does nothing to prevent STDs? Someone has to raise the girls who service the Clintons and the rest of that ilk.
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