Posted: 10/18/07

Sex on Campus

October 15, 2007

Kerby Anderson

            For the last three decades, I have been a speaker on college campuses. So I have seen a lot of changes. The most disturbing has been the explosive increase of sex on campus.

            College kids having sex is nothing new, but the explosion of the hook-up culture has virtually guaranteed that anyone who experiments with sex on campus will contract one or more STDs and will reap the bitter emotional consequences of premarital sex.

            But don't take my word for it. Consider the disturbing observations from UCLA psychiatrist Miriam Grossman. In her book, Unprotected, she writes about the devastation of college hook-ups. Students who engage in these multiple, casual encounters suffer not only from medical problems but also from emotional problems that range from anxiety to depression to self-abuse. And academic performance suffers as students find it difficult to concentrate.

            So what can we do? First, we need to warn students headed for college that there are potential dangers. Parents, teachers, and youth pastors need to warn them about the dangers of premarital sex. We also need to warn them about the danger of drugs and alcohol. Many of these sexual encounters take place when one or more of the partners is drunk or high.

Second, we need to change the culture on campus. One professor at Maryland's Loyola College says female students tell her that peer pressure and campus living arrangements make campus sex "practically obligatory." We have a whole generation of young women that believe that every date must end with a sexual encounter. It is time to teach them otherwise and change the campus culture.

            It's time for parents and alumni to step in and make a difference. Parents are paying (through tuition), and alumni are paying (through donations) for sexual immorality on campus. It is time to stop. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

By Kerby Anderson Click here for bio and archived articles