The tentative Observer headline read: “Breaking News: Stern Student Loses Scholarship over Sex Survey.” The story had all the elements necessary to go viral: sex, censorship, and one unfortunate student caught in between. It was bound to spark conversation among the Yeshiva University community and beyond. But the threats were rescinded. The scholarship was reinstated. And the draft of the Observer article was never published.
Dasha Sominski, Stern ’14, posted a survey on Facebook on Monday, September 16th. The anonymous survey, entitled “YU Sex Ed and Questions of Acceptable Sexual Promiscuity,” was intended to collect research for a Journalism course Sominksi was taking. The survey posed questions about how students define sex and relate to the Orthodox community’s stringent restrictions. The survey also included questions about sexual safety. Within twenty-four hours of posting the survey, the University Dean of Students contacted Sominski via email and phone informing her that her housing scholarship had been revoked. It appeared that the scholarship was intended for model Stern students, and Sominski no longer fit the description.
The Yeshiva University community found out about the administrative decision when Sominski posted about it on her Facebook wall. There was an outpouring of support for Sominski and an overwhelming sentiment of indignation aimed at the administrative decision. Even in its early stages, the incident fanned a spirit of defiance among the student body.
Sominski’s story ended with an apology note to the university and the removal of the survey. “I have only to say that my intentions were genuine,” wrote Sominski. “I wasn’t looking to make an extravagant statement, rather, my status and the attached survey were intended as a beginning of an exploration of patterns ultimately seeking to assist my fellow students (as well as myself) in establishing their personal safety and, perhaps additionally, gaining the ability to consistently make autonomous and educated decisions in the context of sexual affairs.” It is important to note that Stern does offer a course on Human Sexuality. The course, taught by Dr. DiLorenzo, is offered in the Psychology department during the spring semester. However, the course requires two psychology prerequisites, Lifespan and Introduction to Psychology, and is not offered to non-Psychology students as an elective.
This incident, and the significant backlash that was thankfully sidestepped, does not ameliorate the problem: sex needs to be talked about in schools and universities, openly and honestly. It is a problem that conversations of this nature are punished instead of being addressed. It is a problem that attempts to open up the conversation are treated as transgressions. It is a problem that the conversation is repeatedly condemned as inappropriate and sensationalistic. As long as the conversation about sex is treated as taboo, the topic will remain so.
This editorial is not meant to endorse the survey that was posted. There is substantial room to argue that the survey was inappropriate, misplaced, and in deep conflict with what Yeshiva University would like to promote as model behavior. More importantly, the survey was not administered in a context or fashion that promoted Sominski’s aforementioned goals. A survey with the intention to start a productive conversation and educate students about sexual health and practices should not have been unceremoniously disseminated on Facebook. Rather, Sominski could have submitted her survey to the YU Institutional Review Board (IRB) for review. It is the IRB’s job to monitor and assist important research taking place on campus. In fact, Dr. DiLorenzo and Dr. Freyberg, another professor in the Psychology department, recently conducted a survey about sexual health practices among Stern women. Unlike Sominski’s survey, they focused exclusively on sexual health instead of on sexual practice. The survey found that there is a strong correlation between knowledge about sex and following sex-related health recommendations.
This research simply bolsters the original intentions behind Sominski’s project: to promote a healthy sex-consciousness on campus. While Sominski’s methodology was flawed, her goal was directly on target.
There is a conversation that needs to be started. It is time for Jewish day schools and high schools to start providing their students with mandatory sexual education courses. There is also clearly a need at Yeshiva University to create a forum to discuss these issues as well. One need only Google ‘the importance of sex education’ to find over a dozen academic articles supporting this notion. If and when we foster ignorance, we reap suspicion, fear and shame.
To those who worry that the conversation will breed promiscuity, education breeds nothing but educated choices. Sex education will neither encourage, nor prevent, premarital sex. Education about safe sex should be provided to students, regardless of religious views.
However, when an unofficial survey meant only to collect data garners such a significant response, a statement is being made. That statement, to those who do not have the time or patience for subtlety and finagling, is quite blunt: talking about sex is bad. Students who talk openly and candidly about sex deserve condemnation.
This is a message that neither advances nor accurately reflects the observant Jewish community’s attitude towards sex. It is time that our educational institutions take the necessary steps towards debunking this negative, inaccurate and unfortunately pervasive misconception. If not, brewing frustrations and the uncomfortably widening gap between administration and students will only continue to grow.