Humor brings new spin to sex education
By Aaron Kokoruz
Staff Reporter

Let’s talk about sex, baby. Let’s talk about STDs. Let’s talk about all the sex programs that will be.

Dr. Burton W. Schwartz, a physician at the TCU Health Center, said while the TCU sex education programs are presented with some humor, they offer life-saving information.

“You have to present a little humor to college students when talking about the subject,” Schwartz said.

Perry Cottrell, a junior marketing management major, said he was glad he attended a sex talk given by Schwartz.

“Humor helps to keep the mood fun and people interested even though the talk is about a very serious subject,” said Cottrell, a Phi Gamma Delta fraternity member.

As of Monday, all 10 fraternities and several of the sororities had booked a program, Schwartz said.

However, residence halls have been slow to respond this year because of other programming, Schwartz said. Brachman Hall was the only residence hall to book a program this semester, he said.

Dale Smith, head resident assistant of Moncrief Hall, said there is reason to not book sex talks yet.

“There is so much other stuff going on, and we just get bombarded with programs,” said Smith, a senior criminal justice major.

Attending sex talks is not mandatory but comes highly recommended, Schwartz said. Nationwide, more than 50 percent of incoming college freshmen have had sexual intercourse at least once, according to the American College Health Association.

Although 20 percent of college students know someone who has contracted a sexually transmitted disease, 68 percent have unprotected sex and don’t believe they’re at risk of contracting a STD, according to the Society of Adolescent Medicine.

The most contracted STD at all universities is chlamydia, according to the ACHA. This is also true for TCU, Schwartz said.

Many TCU students think that because they are in an environment of predominantly upper-middle and upper-class students, they’re safe from STDs but that isn’t true, Schwartz said.

Schwartz said abstinence is the only way to protect yourself against contracting STDs. He said there is no such thing as safe sex, only safer sex.

“I stress abstinence, but if it was all I talked about, then I wouldn’t be serving the majority of the student population,” Schwartz said.

Sex talks can be scheduled at night and at students’ convenience. Schwartz presents the talks to men and Donna Behl, a gynecologist at the TCU Health Center, presents the talks to women.

“It’s important to build the bridge between knowledge and behavior in college students,” Schwartz said. “It’s the challenge of college health educators across the country.”