Brown students used 20,000 condoms and 400 dental dams from Health Services last year at a total cost of $1,355. Contracep-tive expenditures at other Ivy League schools ranged from as low as $1,000 to as high as $4,000.
The contraceptives, which include lubricated and non-lubricated condoms, female condoms, flavored condoms and dental dams, are available to Brown students from their residential counselors and in baskets in the bathrooms on the first and third floors of the Health Services building.
Students are on an honor system to pay for the contraceptives they take, leaving money in open containers placed at the distribution sites. Condoms cost 15 cents and dental dams cost 50 cents. Health Services is able to provide both at less than retail price because it purchases them in bulk.
Last year, the University spent $1,158 on condoms and $197 on dental dams. Cornell University, with an undergraduate population of 13,577, estimated that it spent between $3,500 and $4,000 on about 15,000 condoms and other forms of contraception last year. The Dartmouth College Health Service approximated that it spent $1,000 on contraceptives. At Harvard University, undergraduates used 31,529 condoms last year, but because funding comes from several different sources, Harvard could not estimate the total amount it spent.
Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania refused to release statistics, and Columbia University and Princeton University could not calculate the figures.
Jennifer Cherry, a health educator at Brown Health Services, said she used to work at a public university where state funding covered a large portion of the cost of contraceptives. At Yale, condoms are free to students because at least half of the supply of condoms is provided by the state government - a rare source of funding for private institutions.
Northern Illinois University, a public university, does not use state funding and instead takes less than $1 from each student's health services fee to provide 150,000 condoms to over 18,000 students, amounting to a hefty price tag of over $15,000 per year.
Some universities choose not to provide contraceptives to their students at all, including Rutgers, a public school, and Jesuit schools such as Georgetown University, Boston College and Fordham University.
Though Brown's total contraceptive expenditures reached $1,355 last year, Health Services sets aside only $500 from its budget at the beginning of each year for contraceptives. The rest of the funding is supposed to be provided by students.
Last year, however, students' voluntary payments amounted to only $450. "There are always parts of the year when we have to slow down or stop the supply," said Frances Mantak, director of health education. "It's an ebb and flow."
Initially, first-year units are given 100 lubricated condoms, 50 non-lubricated condoms and five dental dams each, while upperclassmen units are given half that. Residential counselors are responsible for refilling their unit's supply and collecting money. When they run out, they can go to Health Services to replenish their stock.
"We usually get about two to three counselors a week coming in to refill," said Marguerite Armstrong, the administrative assistant for health education who has overseen the counselors' exchanges for eight years. She added that there are times during the year when that number goes up dramatically, typically during Spring Weekend, before spring break and at the beginning and end of semesters.
"During Spring Weekend, we refill the baskets in the bathrooms two to three times," Armstrong said.
In addition to the initial package of contraceptives given to counselors at the beginning of the year, Health Services includes posters about safe sex, including one on abstinence. The contraceptives, which are usually displayed prominently on the doors of residential counselors and often flanked by colorful construction paper, are there to support those choosing to have sex, but Health Services wants to make sure that those abstaining feel supported as well.
Many students said the supply of contraceptives was sufficient and almost all agreed that it was easily accessible.
"Condoms are definitely available. My RC recommends payment more than demands it," said David Leipziger '09.
Noor Najeeb '09 felt that contraceptives seemed easily attainable but not overwhelmingly so. "I don't think (the amount available) is too much, but if there was a more tasteful way to distribute them, that'd be good."
