Kudos to Trojan for taking action and highlighting college campuses for promoting sexual health!
Congrats to the University of South Carolina for ranking #1!
Make your sexual health a priority. Learn how to get down with sexual empowerment here.
The annual study analyzed 141 schools in the major NCAA conferences, grading them on a wide array of factors, including health center hours of operation, condom availability, HIV testing costs and the availability of anonymous advice. Scores are tallied similar to grade point average, with 4.0 being the best, and 0.0 the worst.
Top 10 Best Schools for Sexual Health
1. University of South Carolina (3.43 Sexual GPA)
3. University of Connecticut (3.38 Sexual GPA)
4. Columbia University (3.24 Sexual GPA)
5. Florida Atlantic University (3.23 Sexual GPA)
6. University of Georgia (3.21 Sexual GPA)
7. Michigan State University (3.17 Sexual GPA)
8. Cornell University (3.17 Sexual GPA)
9. Brown University (3.15 Sexual GPA)
10. Duke University (3.15 Sexual GPA)
The 10 Worst Schools for Sexual Health
1. DePaul University (0.62 Sexual GPA)
2. St. John’s University (1.24 Sexual GPA)
3. Providence College (1.37 Sexual GPA)
4. Baylor University (1.54 Sexual GPA)
5. Bringham Young University (1.57 Sexual GPA)
6. Arkansas State University (1.58 Sexual GPA)
7. University of Louisiana at Lafayette (1.63 Sexual GPA)
8. Louisiana Tech University (1.64 Sexual GPA)
9. Seton Hall University (1.71 Sexual GPA)
10. Troy State University (1.71 Sexual GPA)
USC tops sexual health rankings
Availability of information, testing help Carolina excel
By Ellen Meder
Assistant Mix Editor
Published: Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Everyone comes to college for education but, according to a study released Tuesday, the University of South Carolina is currently leading the nation in a non-academic field of education: sexual health.
USC was ranked No. 1 out of 141 NCAA colleges and universities nationwide for availability of sexual health information and resources according to the fourth annual Trojan Sexual Health Report Card. Never having slipped below No. 11, South Carolina embodied many of the 13 points of criterion for an overall 3.43 sexual health GPA.
Trojan Brand Condoms has been in the contraception business for over 90 years, according to Bruce Tetreault, a group project manager for Trojan, and aligns its business objectives with public health needs.
“Four years ago we got some really sobering statistics about the state of sexual health in America,” Tetreault said. “Only one in three sex acts in singles uses a condom, there are 19 million new sexually transmitted infections every year and over 700,000 unplanned pregnancies under the age of 20 every year in the United States. That drove us to spark conversation and increase awareness of the state of sexual health awareness in America and by doing the Report Card we are able to do that and increase availability of information and resources.”
Trojan enlisted Sperling’s BestPlaces, a Portland, Or. data analysis company, to measure both the access and availability of information and resources. Sperling’s BestPlaces graded universities based on data from campus health centers, student polls and other readily available information like school Web sites. Cost of and access to contraception, HIV testing Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) testing as well as outreach and peer groups factored in to the grading. Amount of sexual activity and STI rates were not included in the study because such information is difficult to accurately obtain said company president Bert Sperling. With a Facebook campaign targeting each school, Sperling’s BestPlaces ran advertisements for questionnaires that asked students five question: Would you consider contacting the health center for a sexual health issue? Does the health center do a good job? Are the services complete? Is he staff trustworthy? And, is there room for improvement? Over 6,000 students responded nationally, with 89 USC responses.
“In those scores, USC received one of the very highest scores in student responses,” Sperling said. “It has a very good Web site and they have student peer groups, they have programs for assault and sexual harassment awareness, and outreach and lecture programs are all top notch. In many areas very excellent.”
Thompson Student Health Center helped in many ways, including everything from free Pap smear testing and free condoms to informative pamphlets. The Sexual Health & Violence Prevention’s (SH&VP) services is where USC especially excelled, offering healthy relationship services, STI information, sexual assault and stalking prevention and lots of campus outreach.
“Our overall goal is seeing students have healthy relationships, including partners, roommates and friendships,” said Ryan Wilson, the Sexual Health Program Coordinator at SH&VP. “My focus is just the sexual health piece of that whole.”
With the University 101 outreach program, SH&VP representatives go class to class with a “What your peers never told you about sex” presentation that gives students full information on both safe sex and abstinence and sparks discussion about personal beliefs.
“We ask students to decide on their own sexual health, to do make those decisions on their own timeline, when they’re ready,” Wilson said.
Additionally, SH&VP spends a lot of time researching student sexual health and holds events like the Nov. 17 World AIDS Day forum, as well as Greene Street condom handouts throughout the year and the Project Condom fashion show in the spring. The branch of the health center also helps out the student sexual health group, Share, in their dissemination of information.
“What we’re doing is on target from the research I’m reading about how peers can help other peers with a lot of this,” Wilson said. “We all need to make responsible decisions and then help others as well. That is one way we can improve, is to take care of each other in every area.”
Kat King, a third-year visual communication student and the president of Share, agreed that students listen more to people like themselves.
“I’m really thrilled about the honor,” King said. “I think it’s really the visibility of our peers and the amazing research of the SH&VP office that got us here.”
Share has about 40 undergraduate members, and is holding many events this month to mark Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and participates with SH&VP in World AIDS Day activities, Safe Spring Break Week, Project Condom, Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Stalking Awareness Day and Homophobia Awareness week.
“I’m really proud of the work we’ve done and definitely feel that in certain areas we are leading the way,” Wilson said.
The healthy discussion of formerly taboo topics at USC is not an isolated occurrence, though.
“Now students are asking how they can help their schools improve the availability of this information and we’ve really seen student empowerment happening,” Tetreault said. “For us, that’s been the biggest change and the most gratifying.”
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