CSUN Debates Proposal to Sell Condoms in Student Union

The governing board of the University Student Union at California State University, Northridge is considering a proposal to sell condoms from vending machines in the building’s restrooms.

The services committee of the student union’s board of directors last week recommended installation of the vending machines, and the full board--10 of whose 15 members are students--will meet on April 6 to vote on the issue.

The student union is an auxiliary corporation of CSUN, however, and the board’s decisions are subject to veto by university President James W. Cleary.

Cleary, who was unavailable for comment, probably will not state his position on the proposal unless the board approves it and sends it to his desk, according to Judith Elias, a university spokeswoman.

Agreement on Need

Campus officials generally agree that CSUN should make condoms available to students as part of a program to educate them about prevention of AIDS. But they disagree on whether the student union is the right place to dispense condoms.

Student Lori Pederson, chairwoman of the student union committee that recommended the vending machines for the building, said the committee probably will make two related recommendations when the issue reaches the full board.

One would make pamphlets about AIDS prevention readily available at the student union, and the other would have the union sponsor a workshop or informational session on AIDS, she said.

The union is a logical place for the vending machines, she said, because so many students pass through the building.

But Dean of Students Edmund Peckham, a member of the student union board, has proposed dispensing the condoms in the Student Health Center instead of the union.

Advocates Other Location

“I don’t think you can necessarily say that the machines should be available there,” Peckham said. “The University Student Union is an open building. There are minors that go in there. . . . The Student Health Center is more controlled and the only people having access to the machines would be students.”

The Student Health Center currently sells condoms to students, but only on a prescription basis, according to the center’s director, Dr. Robert Taylor. Putting vending machines in the student union restrooms would offer privacy to students who might be shy about buying them over the counter, Taylor said, but the machines would also be vulnerable to vandalism, and the quality control for the condoms would be left to the private company providing the machines.

There has been little noticeable controversy about the condom proposal so far, but Taylor said, “It will definitely be controversial . . . That same implement is a birth-control device, and even if that’s not material to what you’re talking about, there are people whose sensitivities are offended by it.”

Lots of Discussion About AIDS

“The positive side of the whole discussion,” student union director Fred Strache said, is that “there’s no question that there are an awful lot of students who are discussing AIDS this week that probably were not discussing it before this came up.”

Officials said the CSUN condom proposal is the first such plan to be considered formally within the California State University system.

The acting president of Fresno City College is considering a similar proposal for condom vending machines in restrooms at that school.