Cal State’s Student Board to Make Free Condoms Available

To give students “a shot of reality,” a message that AIDS can happen to them, free condoms soon will be available at Cal State Fullerton through the Associated Student Board, a student spokesman said Wednesday.

Although students have been able to purchase condoms from the university clinic’s health center pharmacy, they now will be more accessible, student body president Ray Spencer said. “We are not going to randomly seek people out and give them away,” he said. “We are going to designate a place where people can come and get them.”

Spencer said the Associated Student Body center, which is a high traffic area on the Fullerton campus, would probably be the distribution center. “A lot of people, especially in Orange County, think that AIDS cannot happen to them. We want to give them a shot of reality,” he declared.

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, cripples the body’s immune system, leaving it vulnerable to fatal infections and diseases. AIDS is caused by a virus that is transmitted through bodily fluids, such as semen and blood. An infected person can pass the virus through sexual contact or by using a tainted hypodermic needle. Use of condoms and spermicide have been shown to protect people from transmitting the virus during sexual relations.

The Newman Catholic Club is one of several campus religious organizations expected to oppose the student board’s action. On Wednesday, Mark Campbell, Newman’s president, compared giving away condoms to passing out free drug paraphernalia.

But university administrator Roger Nudd, vice president for student services, said he supports the distribution of free condoms and safe-sex literature. “The potential value is that it will call people’s attention to the need for safe sex,” he said.

Dr. Harley Estrin, director of the student health center, said he “concurred” with the student board’s plans. “I have no objections to students developing a program like this,” he said.

No date has been set for the distribution project, which the Associated Student Board will finance with an independent grant, Spencer said. “But there is a board meeting next week, and it will begin as soon as possible after that.”

Another Orange County school, Golden West College, is putting together a task force that will dispense information to its students, a spokeswoman said.

“We do not have any plans to pass out condoms,” said Gerie Kirkpatrick, a public relations spokeswoman for the Huntington Beach campus.

The task force will explore developing a program of counseling, literature and a film about the spread of AIDS, said Kirkpatrick, who read from a statement signed by Marilyn Dickson, the school’s health center director.