Trojan Condoms ranked the University of Idaho dead last in a pool of 141 U.S. colleges and universities in its annual Sexual Health Report Card in 2010. One year later, UI jumped an impressive 42 places to No. 99 in the 2011 Trojan Sexual Health Report Card.
Sperling’s BestPlaces conducted the independent, qualitative study for Trojan Condoms. President Bert Sperling said the study did not look at the rate of sexually transmitted infections or the prevalence of sexual disease on campuses, but rather at the sexual health resources available to students. This information was collected in two ways, he said.
“We first evaluate the student health website,” Sperling said. “We also contact student health representatives and send schools questionnaires to be filled out by a student health representative.”
Greg Tatham, assistant vice provost of Student Affairs, said to his knowledge no one ever contacted UI regarding this survey. Sperling said sometimes because of university policies, surveys are not completed. He was unable to confirm whether any such survey had been completed by UI.
Sperling said the study evaluated several aspects of each college or university’s student health website, most importantly how easy it was to use, how easy it was to find information on sexual health, and how readily visible other resources were on the website.
“We try to put ourselves in the mind of a student and how they would go about finding information,” he said.
Last year the UI Student Health Services website had a minimal amount of information on it, but has greatly improved in many ways, Sperling said. UI even received extra credit for Brotherhood Empowered Against Rape, an ASUI student group dedicated to ending male violence through activism and education.
“It’s not that those programs weren’t established and active on campus,” Tatham said. “They just weren’t easily found on the website.”
Sperling said the sexual health survey is one he is passionate about.
“As researchers we’re excited about this survey, it’s one of the one’s we feel best about because it helps to raise awareness,” Sperling said.
Tatham said he credit’s last year’s “shocking” results to major improvements to the UI Student Health Services website and other new programs on campus.
“It heightened our awareness, and to some extent I think that’s a good thing for us, because we realized that if that’s the way that Sterling’s BestPlaces do their research, then students might be having difficulty finding these resources they need too,” Tatham said.
After the 2010 study was release, Tatham said the university convened a special meeting with representatives from different groups across campus to address the concerns. This meeting resulted in upgrades to the Student Health Services website and the creation of a coordinator of health education programs position, which is in the final stages of a candidate search process. The position will address all student-related health issues, including sexual health.
In addition to upgrades on the website and a new job on campus, multiple groups on campus have made efforts to increase their visibility and create new programs for students.
Women’s Center
The title may be female-oriented, but Lysa Salsbury, coordinator of Women’s Center programs, said one of the Women’s Center’s focuses is on sexual health for students of any gender or sexual orientation.
In response to the 2010 Trojan Sexual Health Report Card, Salsbury said they created the program “Got Sex?”
“We were definitely spurred by concern on campus that we weren’t doing enough,” Salsbury said.
Got Sex? is a monthly forum for students to come and discuss sexual health. B.E.A.R, Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse, Violence Prevention programs and UI VOX also partner in this collaborative initiative that began in spring 2011. Formerly called “The Vagina Dialogues,” the name was changed this fall to encourage all genders to attend.
“These forums are a safe and open space where students can have a voice without judgment,” Salsbury said.
Got Sex? has already covered topics such as sex for the first time and contraceptives, and at it’s most recent presentation on Nov. 10 addressed circumcision.
Salsbury said the response to the forums has been overwhelmingly positive and called the program a “smash hit.” Got Sex? is usually held the second Thursday of the month at the Women’s Center in Memorial Gym room 109, with attendance in excess of 40 people at the most recent forums.
UI VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood
Sex on the Sidewalk, World AIDS Day, Take Back the Night, “The Vagina Monologues” and Got Sex? are just a few of the programs that the campus arm of Planned Parenthood, UI VOX, helps coordinate.
Dorothy Chorlton, co-chair of the student group, said many people have misconceptions about what Planned Parenthood does.
“Less than 3 percent of Planned Parenthood has to do with abortion education,” Chorlton said. “The majority of it is about sexual education, family planning and contraceptives.”
Chorlton said UI VOX’s major focus is sexual education. At tabling events, including the springtime Sex on the Sidewalk event, UI VOX hands out safe sex kits complete with condoms, lubricant, information packets and dental dams. They also have latex free kits and kits for different genders or sexual orientations.
Great American Condom Campaign, a youth-led grassroots movement whose goal is to make the U.S. a sexually healthy nation, recently named UI VOX a “Safe Site.” Chorlton said the GACC sent them 500 Trojan condoms to use to build sexual health programs and events on campus.
UI VOX also creates sexual education programs for many different parts of campus, Chorlton said. They are currently working on a sex-ed program to present to the Greek councils and do education events in residence halls. Violence Prevention Programs
Violence Prevention Programs has two main goals on UI’s campus, said Valerie Russo, assistant Dean of Students for Training and Resources. The first and foremost is crisis management for victims of sexual violence and to help students understand their resources and options. Violence Prevention Programs works closely with the Moscow Police Department and Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse in accomplishing this first task.
Second, Russo said, is education and outreach programming on sexual assault, violence and harassment.
Russo said all reported campus sexual assaults have happened “behind closed doors,” and it’s difficult to get accurate data on the number of rapes or assaults on campus because students may turn to any one of the multiple groups on campus they can go to for help. Russo said Violence Prevention Programs estimates that around 250 rapes or assaults occur on the UI campus each year, based off of a 2000 U.S. Department of Justice study entitled “The Sexual Victimization of College Women.”
“Sexual violence is a health issue that needs major attention. Our main goal is to make students feel respected and helped,” Russo said.
With partners such as ATVP and B.E.A.R., Russo said Violence Prevention Programs helps put on programs like Take Back the Night, Denim Day and National Stalking Awareness Month (in January).
Russo said they have also developed an outreach program called the “3 D’s.” The “3 D’s” are ways to stop and prevent sexual violence by distracting, directly intervening or delegating by getting help from others.
“(The 3 D’s) is about always coming up with some way to help,” Russo said. “We want people to be safe.”
Violence Prevention Programs works hard to increase its visibility on campus with campaigns, fliers, posters and brochures.
“During freshman orientation, we’re literally everywhere,” Russo said. “We’re at Palousafest, the barbecue. If it has the name ‘fair,’ we’re there.”