Segregation fails to cool ardour in dorms
Single-sex floors and rules on visiting hours have failed to discourage sexual activity in University of Hong Kong dormitories, students said yesterday.
A panel of six students from around the world spoke frankly on dormitory life at the 'Sex Uncensored' forum held as part of the university's One World Week extra-curricular activity programme.
In most HKU dorms, male and female students are on separate floors, and visitors of the opposite sex are not allowed after 11pm. But student Wu Chun Pong said the arrangements failed to discourage sex.
Pauli Tiefling, a student from Austria, said the rules were strange and useless. 'I live in a hall and girls are there 24 hours a day, although they are actually not allowed,' he said. 'I see it as a positive factor.'
Sujeeta Elizabeth Menon, from Singapore, said: 'On single-sex floors, there are a lot of different people, including men and women ... even when I am sleeping, I can hear male voices outside.'
Department of Social Work and Social Administration associate professor Petula Ho Sik-ying said: 'I think students should be encouraged to explore their sexuality, their sexual orientation and different kinds of sexual experience.'
During the debate, students also called for condom vending machines on campus and greater support for gay and lesbian students.
The forum came after a survey of 100 local and overseas students at HKU found 74 per cent did not think it was good for university halls to regulate visiting times between the sexes; 51 per cent thought it was good to separate male and female students into different floors; 74 per cent did not believe universities should give away condoms; and 67 per cent did not agree condom vending machines should be installed on campus.
