Sex column creates a stir

If initial college staff reactions to the first installment of student columnist Amanda Worley's "Between the Sheets" sex column are to be believed, the Campus Communicator has devolved into pornography, and yours truly is a smut peddler on par with Penthouse magnate Larry Flynt.

The point I'm trying to make, of course, is that those who took offense at the column are vastly overreacting.

College officials say the column is in bad taste, but the standard-bearers for collegiate and professional journalism disagree. Dozens of college and university newspapers carry regular sex columns, all much more provocative than the relatively tame coyness of "Between the Sheets."

The Poynter Institute for Media Studies acknowledges the legitimate journalistic purpose of sex writing and commentary. The headline of a 2003 entry in the Poynter Ethics Journal proclaims boldly, Journalists need more sex.

Our readership is comprised of college students, and correct me if I'm wrong here, but I'm fairly certain that college students have sex. Offering helpful pointers on how to heat things up in the bedroom would arguably be out of place in a newspaper whose target audience was celibate Gregorian monks. But a college? Give me a break.