In addition to messaging about social distancing, Carleton should provide students with guidelines on how to date and hookup safely in the midst of COVID-19.
Students have plenty of resources on how to socialize with friends, classmates, and other Carleton community members, but the advice cuts short at giving students direction on how to approach intimate relationships during the pandemic.
There is no logical reason for this neglectful omission. It is irresponsible to assume all Carleton students will be celibate or abstain from dating in-person. The majority of university students are young adults, and expecting tens of thousands of adults not to have sex for months on end is unreasonable.
As an institution, Carleton has a responsibility to communicate relevant safety precautions to students. The university also has the capacity to provide resources and perform the outreach necessary to contact every student, as is evident in its ongoing COVID-19 updates to the school community.
Students’ sexual health is always a relevant topic, but becomes even more so during a pandemic, where close contact and unsafe sex can lead to life-altering consequences.
As such, the university should include guidelines for safe sexual practices during COVID-19 in its ongoing pandemic-related updates. Even if the university chose not to promote close-contact intimate activity during the pandemic, proactive actions could still be made to protect students by using its messaging to encourage them to engage in safer forms of sexual activity, such as by working to break down the stigma associated with self-pleasure.
If students aren’t careful while engaging in intimate activities and don’t know what precautions might minimize risk of transmission, the university could have more confirmed COVID-19 cases among its student population with limited guidelines in place to prevent future transmissions.
By avoiding the discussion of how to be intimate during the pandemic, Carleton is failing students and putting their health at risk.
Featured image from file.
