Photo By: Eric Trandel | Photo Editor
Dr. Robert Friar, a Ferris professor in the biology department, has been putting on the presentation for over 15 years. Even though this information is Friar’s specialty, it wasn’t his idea to start putting on the presentation.
“It was somebody else’s idea for me to start doing this,” Friar said. “Originally, I started doing it for the honors students.”
The students also walked away with a word of advice from Friar on relationships and pregnancy.
“The most important part for me is trying to help young people make sure they understand that before they get involved in sex, they need to sit down and discuss in detail what will happen if you get pregnant,” Friar said. “Put it in writing, sign it and date it. Something that I should stress in there though, if you have to get a guy to sign an agreement to stay with you, you’re with the wrong guy to begin with.”
Friar showed pictures of STDs, which got a mixed response from the audience which included laughs and horrified faces.
“I learned what all of the STDs looked like and that was pretty interesting,” Ferris freshman pre-pharmacy major Joseph Hudson said, “But it was definitely what I least enjoyed.”
For another topic discussed, marriage and divorce, Friar shared the “4-minute rule for happiness.”
“The first four minutes in the morning and the first four minutes when you come home in the evening are the most important in the relationship,” Friar said. “If these four minutes are positive, happy, caring and congenial, the relationship will tend to be the same.”
Friar said the 4-minute rule for happiness came from Dr. Phil, but he doesn’t know if Dr. Phil or somebody else generated it.
It was not only students in attendance; Ferris faculty and staff were there, as well.
“Several professors have told me they wished they had something like that a long time ago,” Friar said.
For most freshman students, attending Sex and the College Student is a requirement for their FSUS class.
“I went tonight because it was required, but I probably would have considered going anyways,” Ferris freshman pre-pharmacy major Kevin Gilbert said.
Friar has held multiple presentations all over the country, including one of his favorites, The Pharmacist’s Role in Providing Birth Control Information, but Sex and the College Student is something only the Ferris community has experienced so far.