Dear Editor,
In response to freshman Jordan Kauffman's letter complaining about Ball State not taking a stance on drugs, alcohol, and sex, I have to say that it was ridiculous and also completely unfounded and wrong. Every hall on this campus and just about every organization do programs to educate students about the dangers of drinking, drugs, and sex, but it is not Ball State's responsibility to be a moral compass for students; the people who come to this school are adults and are treated as such by the administration, and by this time in their lives they should already have the moral values they feel are necessary to live their lives.
One cannot expect BSU to act as a parental unit to students and tell them to abstain from the things that you personally consider wrong, because not everyone believes these things are wrong.
Pushing a moral judgment on others is what is wrong, and it's not your
place or Ball State's to do so. Also, BSU cannot prevent its students from engaging in potentially dangerous behaviors any more than you can,
Mr. Kauffman, so the best it can do is advise against them and tell students how to be safer when engaging in behaviors like drinking and sex, and it does. And as for the comment that "abstinence is the safest sex," abstinence, as the term implies, is abstinence from sex.
Therefore, it is not sex. So yes, the safest sex is sex with a condom
and/or another form of contraception. Perhaps you should learn a little
more about this university before you write to the paper criticizing it for doing "nothing" about these issues.
Tabitha Rohrer
sophomore