Despite H*yas for Choice’s goal to have condoms distributed throughout Georgetown residence halls as in years past, the administration maintains such action constitutes a violation of the speech and expression code and should not be allowed in order to protect the quality of life in university housing.

The abortion rights advocacy organization, which is not formally recognized by the university, relies on a `condom representative’ program in which volunteers sign up at the Student Activities Commission Fair to provide condoms for their respective living areas. H*yas for Choice supplies representatives with 50 condoms each month and usually place them in a bag or tape them directly onto their doors.

“Our primary goal is to have condom distribution on campus,” H*yas for Choice Executive Board member Vinita Ahuja (COL ’03) said. “Generally every dorm is covered and we have more people sign up than we need.”

Georgetown administrators, however, assert that such action does not fall within the parameters of the free speech code. The policy allows groups such as H*yas for Choice to circulate condoms and sexual awareness information in areas such as Red Square, but it does not necessarily apply to the residence halls.

“What we do in residence halls is a little more conservative than what you can do outside,” Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez said. “We see them as a bit of a sanctuary where people can feel comfortable . we’re a bit more sensitive in making sure anything posted is not offensive to other students.”

Resident assistants were approached last semester and instructed to tell the condom representatives to remove condoms from their doors, Executive Board member Kristina Gupta (COL ’05) said.

“Some RAs didn’t enforce it, and a lot of people left condoms on their doors without consequences,” Gupta said. “This year, with the new enforcement of the policy, we decided it wasn’t going to be effective and we’d distribute them in Red Square each Thursday.”

The speech and expression code, put into operation in January of 1989, grants all members of the university community the right to “express points of view on the widest range of public and private concerns and to engage in the robust expression of ideas.” It then deems inappropriate expression that is “indecent or is grossly obscene or grossly offensive on matters such as race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual orientation.”

Responsibility for the policy’s execution falls with Gonzalez and his staff. A Committee on Free Speech and Expression, composed of four faculty members and four undergraduate students, advises them on the policy’s implementation.

“We take pride in our ability to have a free speech policy broad enough to incorporate anti-Catholic expression and to look for a way to make certain fair and balanced debate is allowed,” Gonzalez said. “Condom distribution or abortion debates are very different in the classroom or in Red Square than in the dorms.”

“The key point is that the speech and expression policy is appropriate to time, place and manner,” Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson said. “These restrictions acknowledge that protecting free speech is critically important but that institutions may monitor the time, place and manner as a way of guiding the policy.”

Ahuja maintains that in the past she would put 20 condoms on her door each weekend and have about two left by Sunday evening. Since the crackdown on the speech policy, however, no one has knocked to request the contraception.

“I am definitely in opposition to this policy because I personally feel it is putting students at risk,” Katie Cochrane (SFS ’03) said. “The university is trying to not let condom distribution take place on the grounds that it’s disruptive for other students, but in that case, all the fliers about any subject have to go because they could be considered just as disruptive.”

Some students, however, believe that condom distribution on campus transcends the free speech issue.

“Using a condom left unattended on someone’s door is unsanitary; it’s like finding one on the street,” Kevin anz (MSB ’03), former past grand knight of Georgetown’s Knights of Columbus, said. “I’m kind of happy the university is doing what it’s doing, even if it’s not for the right reasons.”

While Red Square is a universally acknowledged free-speech zone and accommodates several organizations each day, H*yas for Choice has been unable to reserve tables of late.

“As of this year we’re not allowed to use tables from facilities, although we had been allowed to reserve them in the past,” Ahuja said.

At this year’s SAC Fair, nearly 1,000 condoms were distributed and $38 was raised for the purchase of condoms at non-profit wholesale prices. H*yas for Choice funds its condom distribution policy solely through donations and is therefore considering applying for a grant from Choice USA, an abortion rights advocacy group.

“The grant would give us $500 as a one-time start-up fee and $200 per year if we had a specific project,” Ahuja said. “We’d also receive 1,000 condoms per semester and informational pamphlets about sexual health.”

H*yas for Choice plans to begin distributing condoms in Red Square within the next two weeks.