Touchy topic of sex is out in the open at Seattle U.

By Stuart Eskenazi
Seattle Times staff reporter

	THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES History professor Theresa Earenfight leads a forum for Seattle University students on the history and politics of contraception.
	E-mail this article Print this article Search archive

On a recent chilly evening, 20 Seattle University students spend their free time nestled on sofas and chairs inside a cozy room on campus, munching on Oreos and talking about sex.

Seattle U. history professor Theresa Earenfight tells them about contraceptives women used in ancient times (pomegranate rind, juniper, pennyroyal tea), then shares her opinion that religion has twisted a woman's right to regulate her own fertility.

"Sex should be about pleasure, I think, although that's not necessarily the Catholic perspective," she says.

The banter between the students and Earenfight is uncensored and unabashed. It also seems incongruous at a Jesuit Catholic university that prohibits the distribution of condoms on campus. But those who teach and work at Seattle U. say that promoting diverse discourse on touchy topics is consistent with a Jesuit education.

Earenfight's forum on the history and politics of contraception was part of a yearlong series on campus encouraging students to navigate a universe of sexual topics. Seattle U. has nominated the series for an award as the most outstanding campus program at any Jesuit university in the country.

Seattle University's sense of self Excerpts from the school's mission statement: "Seattle University is dedicated to educating the whole person ... and empowering leaders for a just and humane world." "The Jesuit educational tradition promotes independent critical thinkers informed ... to address issues of poverty, injustice, discrimination, violence and the environment in knowledgeable, committed and effective ways." "Inspired by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we encourage and assist all students to explore their relationship with humanity, nature and God ... and we identify ourselves as a university that welcomes and promotes free dialogue among persons of diverse religious and intellectual traditions."

Students also have heard from the parents of a student at another Jesuit university who told them he was gay. They have discussed the Catholic church's response to AIDS, explored the mind of a rapist and debated the structures of sex education. A longtime couple offered them tips for staying in love. Attendance during fall-quarter forums exceeded 700.

"The nature of a university should be to examine complex social questions that have an impact on people's lives," said Susan Secker, Seattle U.'s vice president for planning and associate provost. "So if a certain theme is particularly challenging to students at their time in life, why would you not explore that when that's likely to be what is going to get their intellectual interest and curiosity engaged?"

And this should come as no surprise: College students l-o-v-e to talk about s-e-x.

"If these programs weren't provided by the university, they would happen informally on campus anyway," said Nelson Trautman, a sophomore business major and one of two male students attending Earenfight's forum. "What I got out of this was a better concept of a woman's perspective — and I'll take any chance I can get to understand that better."

Educating the 'whole person'

	THOMAS JAMES HURST / THE SEATTLE TIMES Seattle University junior Saunatina Sanchez, 21, can't help but smile during professor Theresa Earenfight's hour-and-a-half discussion on the history and politics of contraception. The Jesuit university is holding a yearlong series of seminars for students on the topic of sexuality.

Seattle U., which operates independently from the Archdiocese of Seattle, is one of 28 U.S. colleges that follow a Jesuit tradition. About 40 percent of its 3,800 undergraduate and 2,900 graduate students are Catholic. The school advertises itself as having the most culturally diverse student population of any university in the Pacific Northwest.

Timothy Leary, vice president for student development, said Seattle U. tends to attract students who are attracted to the diversity that the campus — and its urban surroundings on First Hill/Capitol Hill — have to offer.

"We're a little bit of a product of our environment," he said.

For several years, the university had oriented freshmen to campus by inviting an outside speaker to address them on their first day of classes. Past speakers have included David Guterson, who wrote "Snow Falling on Cedars," and Sister Helen Prejean, who ministers to death-row inmates and whose 1993 chronicle of the Louisiana execution process, "Dead Man Walking," was made into a movie starring Susan Sarandon.

The talks, which revolved around issues of social justice, tended to be provocative. But they lasted only a day.

University officials wanted to expand the orientation to a series of forums, open to all students, that would focus on a single theme and be spaced throughout the academic year. Secker put communication professor Mara Adelman in charge of developing the program and coming up with the inaugural theme.

Adelman reported back to Secker that she had a pretty good idea what topic students would want to talk about the most. She knew a series of sexuality forums on the Seattle U. campus would be considered edgy but also believed it would track with the school's mission.

"The Jesuit tradition emphasizes educating the 'whole person,' " Adelman said. "Sexuality is part of the whole person."

Secker thought the sexuality theme would be challenging because the topic is so misunderstood. But she also thought students would benefit by exploring it in a mature way, within an intellectual setting. She helped convince the university president and provost that Adelman's idea was worth taking on.

"The reason this resonates with a Jesuit and Catholic tradition is that this university is all about making a difference in the world and being particularly responsive to people or issues that no one else seems to be paying attention to," Secker said.

"It's not like we're telling the students what to think. All we're saying is, 'As you weigh these complicated issues, here are the facts and perspectives that you need to examine so that you may come up with the best answers you can.' But we're not going to give them those answers, because none of us may know what they are."

'Academic salons'

Some on campus initially resisted the idea of the sexuality forums, believing freshmen would be too immature to handle such a topic.

"I had some initial concerns about the agenda," said the Rev. Peter Ely, one of 22 Jesuit priests teaching and ministering at Seattle U. "I wanted to make sure we didn't cross that fine line between looking for understanding and presenting an advocacy position."

Ely, a professor of theology and religious studies, presented a forum with Secker last month on Catholic ethics and sexuality.

"I think the conversation about these issues is very important, and the reason I participated was that I wanted the Catholic view to be part of that conversation," he said. "Sometimes there is a tendency to dismiss Catholic positions on sexuality as out of date, or not in synch with the times, and I think that's an injustice to those positions."

Adelman has dubbed the forums "academic salons" to portray them as informal gatherings where important ideas are exchanged. When Adelman attended an annual conference of Jesuit university communication departments, she briefed her colleagues about the salons.

"Several told me in confidence that they could never pull this off at their own schools," she said.

But Catholic education is evolving.

At St. Martin's College, a 1,000-student Catholic Benedictine school in Lacey, Thurston County, a Christian theology program held on campus each summer usually adopts a theme related to sexuality — and the spiritual reflection is open, not oppressive, said the Rev. Kilian Malvey, chair of the religious studies department. "It's beyond me why the church somehow always has lined sexuality up under sin," Malvey said.

At Santa Clara University, a Jesuit institution in California, a legal forum on campus last month featured two speakers from the National Center for Lesbian Rights discussing legal issues facing domestic partners.

"Intellectual inquiry and an openness to a wide variety of ideas tend to be characteristics of a Jesuit education," said Barry Holtzclaw, Santa Clara's communications manager.

"We are not secular institutions. But we are institutions that are probably very different from what some people stereotype us to be."

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company