During the last week, N.C. State students attracted the national spotlight for being anal — probably the most uptight of the UNC System. The fuss about UAB’s Dirty Bingo, a sexual health and education event, is surprising considering Trojan Brand Condoms gave NCSU the highest score of any North Carolina university in its Sexual Health Report Card Rankings report (NCSU came in at number 38 of the 141 schools on the list).

The Union Activities Board implemented security measures for last night’s event. Before letting students enter Witherspoon Cinema, UAB-hired security searched their bags and scanned them with security wands — foregoing a theme-appropriate strip search. UAB hires security for large events, and was advised by Campus Police to do so for Dirty Bingo because of the dissension it caused. A few students planned a protest of the event, but never showed up.

According to Lauryn Collier, UAB president, the added security will cost UAB $100 — which will come from the money the Board receives from student fees.

Jason Cockrell, a senior in applied mathematics, was among the most outspoken against this event. His guest column in Monday’s Technician and Facebook posts on the Dirty Bingo event page railed against using student fees to purchase adult toys as prizes for the event. 

Eventually, UAB relented, and acquiesced to Cockrell and company by pulling some of the items off of its prize list. And thanks to an anonymous donor, who gave $310, the event can continue without the use of student fees … well, until it’s billed for security detail.

On Dirty Bingo’s Facebook page, some students argued against it, not because of the nature of the prizes, but because fee money (less than a penny from each student) was slated to be used for an event only a few would benefit from. And though these students often said they couldn’t care less about the nature of the prizes (as to not appear too uptight), their defense doesn’t retain water.

By that logic, the same protesting students would be against the security that was hired because of their own objections. The very first arguments that surfaced were along the lines of, “I can’t believe my student fees are paying for vibrators and anal plugs.” And that statement doesn’t express the same grief this statement expresses: “I can’t believe UAB is taking money from all of us and redirecting it to the interests of a few.”

Those opposed to the event tried to claim the latter argument after realizing the former was indeed prudish. If students are upset about redirecting student fees to programs that benefit only a minority of the student population, then they would protest every event UAB hosts to which less than 51 percent of the student body attends. That would be beyond unreasonable.

Students vexed by the event may try to claim some sort of pseudo-political misappropriation angle, but it’s not very convincing. Using a paltry amount of student fees money to educate students about sex in an entertaining and engaging way is not inappropriate. 

Perhaps if the students who were so opposed to Dirty Bingo knew the joys of edible panties, theirs wouldn’t be in such a twist.