Health center counselor Cathey Soutter speaks at Sex Drugs & Rock n’ Roll in the Hughes-Trigg Commons. (Christina Parrish)

Socially taboo topics of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll were tackled in an open forum held yesterday in the Hughes-Trigg commons. The event was put on by the SMU Ethics Design Team, sponsored by the Maguire Center for Ethics and Public Responsibility.

“Our mission is not to preach. It’s to provide the students with the ability to make the right decision by developing their own values. We’re here to provide the information,” said senior Chelsea Hilliard, who has been with the Design Team for four years.

The four-person panel consisted of seniors Russ Allsup and Michelle Wigianto and faculty members Cathey Soutter and Carolyn Smith-Morris. Soutter is a counseling psychologist who works in the SMU health center while Smith-Morris is a professor specializing in medical anthropology. The panel fielded questions focusing on how things such as social drinking, drug usage and premarital sex can affect the individual student as well as the entire student body. The pressure a student may or may not feel when peers partake in such activities was specifically addressed in the forum.

“I think many of us want to fit in. It’s a way of being excluded if you’re the only one not drinking. When we make decisions on the fly, we’ll do what is most comfortable at the time, even if it conflicts with your system of morals and values,” said Soutter.

For the majority of the discussion, the panel clearly agreed with one another on the questions raised by both the Design Team and audience members.

“I believe that today we follow morality by majority – we follow what a group is doing. Even if I don’t agree, the other people doing it seem to be enjoying it. A lot has to do with the community and our ideals not being determined by a moral compass, but by the actual actions of the community,” said Allsup.

Even though some of the topics brought up for the panel to discuss involved recognizing the presence of illegal substance use and other unlawful activities on campus, the message was clear that breaking the law is not the way to live a healthy student life.

“You people need to obey the law. Don’t break it. If you disagree with a law, spend your time and spend your money on changing it. Your role as a college student is to identify your morals and values and stand up for them,” said Smith-Morris.

The Ethics Design Team came up with the idea for this forum after a previous discussion regarding cocaine usage on campus proved extremely successful and effective in providing students with information about the drug.

The Design Team plans to continue hosting open discussions as it continue to strive for its goal to provide information to help students realize that their decisions can make either a positive or negative effect on the both them and the world.

“If you universalize the [conflicting act of interest], what would be the outcome? Would it be positive or negative?” asked Allsup.

For more information on the Design Team and Maguire Center, visit smu.edu/ ethics_center.