What’s in your medicine cabinet?

Unfortunately, college students aren’t known for making wise decisions about sex. A mixture of raging hormones, flowing alcohol and freedom from “Parentus Interruptus” often bypasses the brainpower we’re supposed to be cultivating.

And even though it’s true that the safest sex is no sex, students can still have smart sex.

Thursday evening, Planned Parenthood held an open house at the Kent Health Center on Main Street and gave out free condoms and emergency contraceptives. While visitors could have picked up their goodie bags and left without missing any “Grey’s Anatomy” or bar time, it was an opportunity to anonymously pursue safer sex without questions or judgment.

Planned Parenthood’s dedication to helping college students take control of their sexual health and futures is truly commendable.

But embarrassment and fear of judgment probably led many to steer clear of the center’s open doors that night. This is dangerous thinking. If you’re adult enough to choose to be sexually active, you should be responsible enough to secure your own contraceptives and birth control.

In the throes of passion, condoms sometimes slip, break or are forgotten entirely. For this reason, emergency contraceptives like Plan B should be a staple in every woman’s medicine cabinet, between her Band-Aids and pain killers. It is available without a prescription at pharmacies, though many don’t carry it yet. Planned Parenthood sells it for about the price of an entire season of “Grey’s’ Anatomy.”

It’s not an abortion pill; if conception has occurred, Plan B won’t have an effect. It also should not be used in place of a birth control prescription. It’s merely a strong dose of the same drugs that are in birth control — a safeguard if anything goes wrong.

There is no room for prudishness when it comes to personal and sexual safety. Sexual encounters are often unplanned, so even if a woman isn’t sexually active, she should have some Plan B on the shelf just in case.

The same goes for condoms. There is nothing wrong with a woman having her own condom supply so she doesn’t have to rely on her partner to bring one. However, both men and women find it difficult to brave the off-campus pharmacy check-out line with a box of condoms in hand. Whether they’re afraid of running into a friend, family member or professor, their natural preference would be a discrete way of finding condoms on campus.

Oddly enough, it appears to be easier to find condoms at a gas station than at Kent State. They’re found on the shelves, in dispensers in the bathrooms and sometimes behind the counter. But on campus, one has to search for them, often fruitlessly. Sure, certain groups and organizations provide them, but not nearly as anonymously or discretely enough to satisfy many students’ fear of embarrassment.

It needs to be easier for students to have safer sex on campus. We suggest installing condom dispensers, like those in gas stations, in both the male and female bathrooms in the residence halls. We doubt the price would outweigh the tuition lost when a woman drops out of school to care for a baby.

The university has an innate interest in encouraging students to have safer sex. It’s time to do something about it.

The above editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Kent Stater editorial board.