As students returned to campus this fall, many of them sat through orientation weeks with presentations that included guidance on safe sex practices. Foregrounded by concepts such as “consent” and “sex positivity,” there is often little to no vision of what healthy relationships look like, and no question as to whether physical intimacy should be a part of that picture. Universities continue to pursue this type of programming even as Gen Z becomes increasingly aware that concepts like “consent” and “sex positivity,” however much they comport with the progressive policies they support, have little to offer when it comes to finding real love.

If you’re just starting school, you’re probably thinking about a lot – perhaps you’re picking classes to add or drop, choosing a major, starting independent work, or thinking about life after graduation. If you’re a Love and Fidelity Network student, you may also be wondering how to start or grow your student group, organize orientation activities and schedule events. Whether you’re at the beginning or end of your college journey, we want to help you discover and refine your personal mission this semester. We also hope to inspire you, as a friend of our network, to dream up new ways of sharing your beliefs about family, marriage, and sexual integrity with peers.

Glimpse the “family planning” aisle at your local pharmacy, and you may get the impression that the phrase strictly refers to contraception, enhancement, or pleasure. This would be on par with the dictionary definition of the term, which is “the practice of controlling the number of children in a family and the intervals between their births, particularly by means of artificial contraception or voluntary sterilization,” and its secondary definition, “artificial contraception.” Whether you associate family planning with contraception or not, everyone can agree that family planning is ultimately about relationships, what we do in them and for them. Therefore, we should learn to view family planning as more than just deciding whether or not to get pregnant, and consider it in the full scope of its relational meaning.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, a third of parents with children under age five entrusted grandparents with childcare responsibilities. Significant expense of daycare programs aside, it seems that parents would rather their children spend more time in the presence of extended family members than be watched by unrelated others. The increase in grandparent childcare suggests that the pandemic trend toward intergenerational living may be grounded in something more enduring besides mere economic considerations.