Education: The Pill at Stanford

Are today’s students really against the old American notion that colleges must act in loco parentis? In some ways, the young seem to be asking for even more tender, loving care. At Stanford University, President Kenneth Pitzer is now pondering whether his school should take over yet another function—dispensing the Pill to unmarried women students under as well as over the age of 21.

Many of Stanford’s 2,820 coeds are now seeking contraceptive help at the nearby Palo Alto Planned Parenthood center; its director, Gloria Davis, complains that the clinic is so crowded with students that high school teenagers from the community are being squeezed out. Dr. James McClenahan, director of Stanford’s health center, agrees that the. university itself should probably take over. Dr. Richard U’Ren, a psychiatrist at the university health center, thinks otherwise. “What the health center should be dispensing to unmarried students is advice,” he says. “If students want to go beyond that, it should be their responsibility, not the university’s.” President Pitzer is expected to announce his decision some time after Christmas. He has ample precedent for approving the plan: according to a survey by the American College Health Association at least a dozen colleges already prescribe the pill to unmarried women under 21.