As a senior looking back at my first year on campus, my freshman year welcome pack from NC State wasn’t very memorable. I vaguely remember getting some Clorox wipes, a lanyard and various NC State-related stickers. Every incoming freshman class gets these packs, but I’ve never once heard a student talk about it.

That is, until now, with the birth of the condom controversy of the century.

Since move-in started for this year’s freshman class, NC State has received backlash for including a pack of condoms, alongside some other sexually-explicit material, in the welcome packs. The outrage has ultimately resulted in the University putting an end to their distribution.

Sure, the handout used to predict your next sexual encounter — called “(S.) M.A.S.H,” if you were curious — went too far. Sure, we don’t need to openly talk about threesomes at the university level and potentially promote risky sexual behaviors.

That’s another topic, though. I’m just here to talk about condoms.

Parents have condemned NC State for the packs, saying its contents promote sexual activity, as evidenced by tirades of Facebook comment sections. I’ve yet to witness a student complain or express similar concerns over the matter.

Interestingly enough, the only thing that increased access to condoms leads to is increased rates of protected sex. There’s no evidence that free condoms would amount to more sex among young adults.

Even if it did, so what? Sex can be dangerous when not handled carefully, but in general, it’s a healthy, beneficial and natural part of the human experience. For women alone it can improve your immune system, decrease your risk for heart disease and limit physiological and emotional stress. Similar conclusions have been drawn for men’s sexual health.

I’m not trying to promote orgies. But there’s no getting around the fact that college students are sexually active. In fact, in 2017, two-thirds of college students said they were. Consider this statistic, then add the fact that college students have high rates of STIs but aren’t often tested. That’s a scary combination.

This being said, making sure intercourse is safe and healthy is about the only thing we can do in regard to college students’ sex lives.

Encouraging abstinence won’t work; my generation has heard that spiel far too many times from instructors in sexual education. They tell us that the best way to prevent unwanted sexual outcomes is to not have sex. While this is technically true, it’s unrealistic.

A realistic way, then, to prevent such consequences is providing birth control options, and condoms are one of the easiest methods to access. It can be made even easier if universities offer them free of charge.

If you’ve ever bought condoms, you know how embarrassing it can feel. Providing them for students can block that obstacle, making them more likely to participate in safe sex.

The NC State Student Health Center already offers one female condom and three male condoms free per day. That was one of the first on-campus resources I heard about when I committed here, and no one is outraged about that.

In addition to increasing our awareness and access to sexual health resources, it’s important that we begin tackling the stigma around sex itself. For whatever reason, older generations are typically harsher than younger ones in terms of expressing sexuality.

There’s so much shame associated with sexual activity in our culture these days. The number of people someone has had sex with has become an indicator of who they are as a person. A victim of sexual violence is blamed for the kind of clothes they wore. Tinder is viewed as a tool of hook-up culture that’s frowned upon. And contraception is getting chipped away at every day.

Until we let go of this stigma, safe and educated sex will only go so far.

NC State does well with services related to sexual health. We have the Women’s Center, free STI testing, gynecology services and more, though there is always room for improvement. I’ve happily used some of these resources, but they could be better by simply making students more aware of them.

But critics need to stop telling us we should be doing less about sexual behavior for fear of it promoting intercourse when we can never do too much.

So yes, NC State, keep the condoms coming.