Revisions of 'Sex on Campus' Stir Up a Controversy at Yale

Controversial revisions in the soon-to-be-published second edition of the "Student Guide to Sex on Campus," written by Yale students, will not interfere with plans to distribute the book to the freshman class, a spokesman for Room 13 said yesterday.

Room 13 and the freshman task force have distributed copies of the 1971 first edition to half of the freshman suites and will distribute the remaining copies before Christmas break, Marci S. Yoos '76, co-director of Room 13 said.

Room 13 has enough copies of the old edition of the Guide to complete this year's distribution. "When I see the new version, if it looks good, we'll buy it," Yoos said.

"Most of the revisions in the book are purely factual up-dating regarding IUD's, abortion and the Pill," Catherine C. Carr, co-editor of the Guide and a member of the Yale Committee on Human Sexuality which produces the book, said last night.

What concerns Yale officials is the inclusion of two photographs illustrating the use of birth control devices, Carr said. One depicts a woman inserting a diaphragm and the other shows a man putting on a condom.

"We found that many of our medical advisers at the Yale Health Services objected to the photo of the man, saying that male genitals don't traditionally appear in these books, while they didn't object to the picture of the woman," Carr said.

"The Committee felt this was sexist and that the photos were important, so we decided to include them," Carr said.

Lorna Sarrel said last night that she and her husband, Dr. Philip Sarrel, both advisers to the Committee, thought that most advisers objected to both photographs equally, not because they were improper, but because they might engender a negative reaction to the entire book.

Lorna Sarrel said only one doctor objected just to the picture of the male.

As a personal favor to Samuel Chauncey, Secretary of Yale, the Committee decided to include a clarifying statement, "This book is written by a group of Yale students and is not an official university publication," Carr said.

Since the first edition was not an official university publication either, Carr said the Committee will not know if the university's position has changed unless it prevents them from distributing the book at registration