DePaulia
The
2016 Pacemaker award Winner/Best Weekly College Newspaper - SPJ
Volume #102 | Issue #4 | Oct. 2, 2017 | depauliaonline.com
Safe sex
Student group delivers condoms despite university policy against contraceptives By Amber Colón CODY CORRALL | THE DEPAULIA
Imagine getting a condom delivered to your dorm as easily and efficiently as it is to order a pizza on your phone. Having sex is one of the many things that is just a part of student life, but some student organizations believe that DePaul is not doing everything it can to make sure students are practicing safe sex. As DePaul is a private, Catholic institution, the policy on contraceptives is on a leash as tight as the Vatican’s. Students for Reproductive Justice (SRJ) is an unofficial student organization that decided to take matters into their own hands by giving away free condoms, even at the risk of being reprimanded by the university. Text Jane is a free service open to students who are on campus and in need of birth control. SRJ’s members take turns going on delivery shifts each Friday night from 6 to 11 p.m. Students can request male and female condoms, dental dams, lube and even pregnancy tests. A text message to SRJ’s shared Google Voice number will notify whoever is volunteering that evening, and they will meet the requester in a public place on campus. Text Jane’s peak service hours are around 8 p.m. each Friday night. Text Janet came into fruition by Loyola student Melissa Haggerty. The student ruffled feathers at her own university last fall for demanding the institution to provide wider resources for sexual assault and access to
abortion services and birth control. Junior founding member Amy Weider said that when she met Haggerty, she was convinced to bring a similar initiative to DePaul. “It kind of all started with the Text Jane idea,” Weider said. “We thought it was a good idea, but we thought, ‘We can do more than just this.’” SRJ’s mission statement reads that they “aim to create spaces on and off campus to build community and solidarity with people and groups that are affected by reproductive injustices at DePaul,” and Weider clarified that condom distribution is only the first step of sex education. Last Monday, SRJ held a general body meeting at one of their member’s off-campus apartment. There, founding member, Jennifer Holtz said that they were aware that they would likely receive pushback from the university and that from that point forward they would just be preparing for the worst. “For me, it’s a lot of mental preparation, just knowing that what we are doing could come back to bite us,” Holtz said. However, due to DePaul’s strict policies on contraceptives, the group fears being shut down. That being said, the fight for condoms on campus isn’t at all PHOTO COURTESY OF STUDENTS FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE Students for Reproductive Justice hand out free condoms and other contraceptives weekly with the belief that it is “what must be done.”
See CONDOMS, page 5
DePaul grad starts petition calling for discounted Metra tickets Metra fares are projected to increase for the fourth consecutive year and college students are calling for change. Recent DePaul graduate, Cedric Ngwa, started an online petition on change.org for discounted Metra fares for college students. Ngwa first started the petition in January of this year when he witnessed a group of students trying to buy a Metra ticket using their high school I.D. so that they would get it a discounted price. Seeing this, Ngwa realized there are many students who probably don’t have enough funds to ride the train. “I know how expensive it is to feed yourself, go to school and pay for your transportation to and from Chicago,” Ngwa said. “The average student may not be making enough in wages to where they can afford to have a weekly expense of almost $100 in transit, whether they are full-time or part-time.” According to their website, the Metra is a sister agency to the Chicago Transit Authority, providing mass transit to Chicago and some suburbs. It operates on a distancebased fare system consisting of twelve fare zones. One-
Story by Dirce Toca Asst. News Editor
way fares to downtown Chicago range from $3.50 from the closest zone, Zone A, to $10.50 from the farthest, Zone M. The petition calls for a reduced fare cost for one-way tickets — a $3 discount for full-time students and $1.50 for part-time students. Ngwa lived on campus his freshman year, but for the next three years of his college career he took the Metra to get to school and back home. He admits sometimes he would purchase a ticket for a stop before his destination so the price of the ticket would be a bit cheaper. “50 cents here and there, it adds up,” Ngwa said. The Metra does have discounted fares available for senior citizens, customers with disabilities, military personnel and full-time grade school and high school students. The discounted fares are not available to college students. However, the CTA does offer college students at participating institutions a U-Pass, providing unlimited
rides on the CTA for when they are enrolled full-time in school. The cost of the U-pass is charged on the student’s tuition. “There should be something in place, similar to how the CTA works with certain colleges to provide rides for students,” Ngwa said. “The Metra should have something similar as a corporation with these universities as well.” According to research by StateUniversity.com Education Encyclopedia, approximately 86 percent of college and university students are commuter students. Typically, these students commute to school, as it is more economically beneficial for them since they cannot afford to live on campus. But while these commuter students may be saving by living with their parents, transportation prices are still concerning. “Being a broke college student is real. If Metra prices keep rising, soon I’m afraid I may not have enough money for lunch,” said junior Julie Gonzalez. Gonzalez spends $12 daily if she buys two one-way tickets to get to school and back home, or $54 a week if
See METRA page 8