Program Board's Long-Awaited Event Draws Capacity Crowd In Rhea Miller

By Emily McGuire

With advertisements filling windows and bulletin boards across campus as early as September, Program Board’s heavily advertised event, I Heart Female Orgasm, finally took place last Wednesday in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall.

Dorian Solot, a breast cancer survivor, and Marshall Miller are a married couple, graduates from Brown University, who reach out to educate students on sex, relationship issues and the details in between…all the details in between. With their sense of humor and playfulness of the topic over 700 SVSU students were able to interact with and listen to Miller and Solot talk about safe sex, what is and is not considered “normal” and dismissed some of the popular rumors of sex.

Shane Williamson, president of SVSU’s Program Board, was intrigued when he witnessed “Female Orgasm” being advertised at Michigan Tech. After watching the presentation himself Williamson thought SVSU just might need something like this.

“After I saw it, I thought SVSU could use something like this, I thought it’d bring spiciness to the programs here that SVSU offers,” Williamson said. “I talked to the Program Board and they thought it was pretty scandalous, but we got everyone who needed to be on board to go with it.”

Williamson said the topic of sex isn’t as taboo as it used to be.

“[There are] a lot of misconceptions about sex and its important for students [to be educated]. This presentation is kind of a way to break barriers between men and women on the issue of sex. It’s normally always been a male-dominated subject and was always seen as taboo and a dirty subject, but it’s not.”

Sex education isn’t the only idea that Williamson wanted students to bring away from this program.

“I want students to know that they can bring most any program to campus. If they join an organization, and there are so many here at SVSU to choose from, and work hard you can really do anything.”

Nor is it the only intention of Solot and Miller. Having done over 400 presentations around the country at colleges, universities, businesses, churches, and conferences, the duo’s goal is to educate but to help their viewers stay healthy and have fun.

The event, which was the focal point of Program Board’s fall event schedule, came with a $3,500 price tag, accounting the lecturer’s themselves, as well as advertising materials and merchandise provided by the group.

“When working on bringing the program, the base price for the lecture itself is $3,500,” Williamson said. “It included some free shirts and signs to give away, a publicity package to help us advertise and other little tips to help us get people to the program. We decided not to do any other additional programs with them because we were not sure how well this one was going to go over with the students. There were other options to get their other programs at discounted prices or special rates.”

In fact, the program went over well with students.

"I think for as much as they put into the program it turned out pretty well,” freshman Noah Ross said. “I mean I saw advertisements early on in the semester and thought it'd be huge and when I showed up I was surprised to see how many students came."

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed, but thought the event should have lasted longer.

"I actually thought that since I saw posters and stuff almost at the beginning of the semester it would be a lot longer, I think the program only lasted about an hour or so but it was still pretty informational; my roommates and I liked it."

When asked if Program Board was planning a similar event in the near future, Williamson said, “No, no more female orgasm presentations. We don’t want to be known as the sex group or anything like that. The [Program Board] has been busy this semester, putting on quite a few programs. With a turnout of over 700 students…wow, that was great. [The board] is just focusing on wrapping things up this semester, we’re taking a little break but we are coming back next semester with a lot of really interesting programs too.”