Trigger warning: this story contains mention of sexual assault
Among the small Allegheny College campus, a committee is looking to begin a three to four-day event in the Spring of 2024 dedicated to shedding light on topics such as sex education, mental health and diverse student experiences.
The Sex Positive Week Committee is looking for new members to help make the event happen by attending monthly meetings, creating an itinerary, budgeting and networking with other organizations according to their My Allegheny post.
Committee Member Roman Morales, ’24, said that there are no board positions to avoid a sense of hierarchy within the committee but the idea to create a sex-positive week at the college came from his visit to Westminster University.

“I noticed that it was something that they did there and it sounded very interesting so I wanted to bring it here,” Morales said. “I hope it makes it easier for people to vocalize what their needs are and to feel less stigmatized in talking about it and to feel like they can explore more of themselves in a healthy environment.”
Currently, the committee is in its very early stages of planning and is seeking funding from Student Life according to Morales.
“We’re thinking three to four days of programming and we would like to have it so that in the future, people can have like a whole week or like a month or whatever they would like to do,” Morales said.
Committee Member Mary Boepple, ’25, shared where her passion for sex education comes from.
“I was raped at 10 and molested for about 10 years and I didn’t know what that was because I grew up going to Catholic schools where they didn’t tell you what sex was,” Boepple said. “They just told you that if you have sex, you get pregnant, you get an STD and you die and you go to hell.”
Boepple is currently a social worker who has worked with kids who have experienced similar abuse. Through her passion for sex education, she wants to give new students who may have come from sheltered backgrounds an opportunity to be a part of an open forum where they can ask questions without judgment.
“I think it would be great for freshmen, I think it’s great for people in all classes because what it does is it gives voice to a topic that as a society we are more open about,” Boepple said. “But we still have a lot of work to go when it comes to topics about consent, healthy relationships, identifying red flags, leaving unhealthy relationships and most importantly, how to move on from negative sexual experiences.”
Through Sex Positive Week, the committee is aiming for a holistic approach by talking about topics beyond sex such as gender and expression.
Committee Member Christopher Culbertson, ’25, shared some brainstorming the committee has been discussing.
“Some of the ideas that we’ve been floating are like health and wellness like walking around activities,” Culbertson said. “We’re also thinking of discussing like, how to do makeup and stuff, education about asexuality because that is not something that was touched on in my sex education and I don’t know if that is a universal experience.”
Additional topics that may be featured during the week are discussions about body image, empowerment, recovery from sexual assaults and demonstrating what healthy relationships on campus look like according to Culbertson.
“I think there is a taboo to discussing sex, not just at Allegheny but just society in general,” Culbertson said. “I think that if we just talked about sex more openly then we could help bring down some of that stigma and have a more healthy and productive conversation about what safe sex looks like.”
Because Allegheny College is a small campus, sex education may be a conversation that is difficult as there is very little anonymity.
“Especially in a small campus like this, just talking about sex is hard because everyone here knows each other,” Culbertson said. “I think it can be harder to talk about things with people you know and it’s a problem across all campuses as sexual assault is a big thing we are worried about so we just want to create a tighter-knit community here where people are comfortable finding resources to get help.”
In the committee’s future planning, they want to collaborate with other organizations such as AGES, Why Not Us? Women in Business and other organizations that surround similar issues they want to present.
“We want to make sex education something that feels safe, destigmatize it, make it more accessible to people,” Morales said.