Let’s talk about sex baby!
You are in college and whether you are single or taken, there is a high possibility that you are or will be in a position to be having sex. College is one of the few times young adults have to test their sexuality because of his or her independence.
Mercy College, as well as many other universities, offer a variety of condoms to their students and encourage them to have safe sex with signs outside the nurses’ office. Mercy College offers an assortment of Lifestyle condoms and Trojan magnum condoms.
When walking into the nurses’ office she/ he encourages you to take as many as you need, they don’t ask any questions or say a word to you if you just simply walk by their desk. A box of Trojan Magnum condoms start at $5.49 for just three of them at CVS. Mercy College gives these condoms for free so students don’t have to use their money or worry about the embarresment of buying it in the store.
Mercy College receives these condoms from the state. Registered Nurse Noreen Keenan works in the nurses office on Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 9p.m. and she says that an average of seven students stop in daily for condoms. She said that the purpose of giving these condoms is all out of good intention and not a promotion of sex.
“We are here as a preventative of diseases and unwanted pregnancies,” said Keenan. “We don’t promote sex, but we are here to avoid STDs.”
The nurses don’t take down names or information when students come in for condoms, but they take a tally of how many students come in. She says that it is usually the busiest on Thursdays because people are getting ready for the weekend.
“There is an embarrassment factor for the students. I’ll hear three students giggling outside the door but only one comes in to collect condoms for all of them,” said Keenan.
There are always embarrassing situations that students have to deal with when they go the store to buy condoms or go into the nurses’ office to get them for free but that shouldn’t stop anyone from being safe and smart.
The nurses office is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wendsdays from 9 a.m. to 9.p.m., on Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and then from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.. There is a special Friday schedule for February; on the 8, 15 and 22 it is opened from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Why don’t people take advantage of these free condoms that Mercy College actually gives them?
I am usually the person within my group of friends to sacrifice myself to go into the nurses’ office and get a handful of condoms for everyone. Do I ever feel judged or weird in any type of way? Of course! But they are free condoms, and I am being safe about whatever I decide to do.
With all the things I hear due to living in the dorms and listening to everyone talk, the nurses’ office should be the busiest place in the world. Everyone should take advantage of this one thing that Mercy College offers us.
“I do take advantage of Mercy giving us free condoms and I appreciate it but whenever I do need them I make my friends go get them for me,” said Jackii Newman, a sophomore at Mercy College. After asking why she was embarrassed to go get them herself she just shrugged and said, “I don’t want people judging me, and my friend doesn’t mind.”
Many people think that the nurse or people seeing you in the nurses’ office will judge you but you guys need to get that out of your head and learn that it is better to be safe than sorry. After all, if Mercy didn’t give us free condoms and we had to spend our own money on them, there are more people in public areas like a pharmacy that will be looking at you and “judging” you while you buy condoms.
