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DiscussWhile Cornell may have earned an A+ for its motto in a recent poll by Motto Magazine, the University did not score as well in a recent survey on sexual health resources and awareness on college campuses.
Cornell was ranked 63rd out of 139 universities with a score of 2.91 out of a possible 4.0 in the 2007 Trojan Sexual Health Report Card.
The survey, conducted by Sperling’s BestPlaces on the behalf of Trojan, polled student health centers and assessed their websites in 11 different categories of sexual health resources.
However, staff members at Gannett Health Center involved in sexual health counseling report they were never contacted for the study.
“Who knows who they actually spoke to,” said Nina Cummings, a Health Educator at Gannett who specializes in sexual health. “We have pretty comprehensive resources available, everything from the clinical side to the medical side, as well as outreach ... I would say we’re in pretty good shape, but we always welcome feedback.”
According to Cummings, Gannett tries to cater to the different needs of Cornell’s diverse student population: “We’re always looking for students to tell us what their needs are. So we’re certainly struggling to be able to provide to populations on campus that ordinarily are nervous talking about sexual health, or that don’t ordinarily seek it; some of our international students are not accustomed to seeking sexual health services. We also want to be sure we’re reaching the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans population.”
Health centers from other universities ranked in the survey, such as Purdue University and Ball State University, also claim they were never notified about the survey.
Nancy Maylath, director of the Student Wellness office at Purdue believes the study may have been conducted solely based on health center websites.
“I was never contacted, nor was anyone else contacted at our office. We even wondered how we were ranked,” she said.
According to a press release, Sperling’s BestPlaces, who conducted the survey for Trojan, evaluated schools by contacting the universities’ health centers by telephone and email asking about participation in a brief survey regarding the centers’ services.
Students were also polled to express their opinions on their school’s student health services.
24 students from Cornell responded to this poll, which was advertised via Facebook.
“We asked to speak to the administrator, and in cases where we did not speak to the administrator, we asked who else we could speak to regarding this,” said Bert Sperling, founder of Sperling’s Best Places. “But we did contact everyone. In some cases it was difficult to communicate to the people exactly who we were and what we were doing ... Certainly it becomes much more apparent after the fact, once the study comes out. Perhaps then they understand better what it is, so that might be part of the confusion.”
2007 marks the second year of the Trojan’s Sexual Health Report Card, which broadened its scope of categories for assessment and number of schools ranked since its first year.
The 2006 study only ranked schools based on the resources and information available on their health centers’ websites. Cornell was not one of the schools ranked for the 2006 report card.
The Sexual Health Report Card was created as a response to Trojan’s college roundtable program, in which Trojan found that students were not receiving the information, services or access to contraceptives (including condoms) they felt they needed.
Trojan’s current campaign, “Evolve,” is aimed at creating a national dialogue on sexual health with an emphasis on responsible behavior.
“What we hope to accomplish from this is to bring to light that there’s a critical need to improve the sexual health of our nation and a critical need to improve the sexual health on campus,” said Jim Daniels, vice president of marketing for Trojan. “We want to make sure that the use of condoms is not something to be embarrassed about, but a symbol of respect for not only yourself, but for your partner as well.”
According to Liana Mancini ’09, the problem of sexual awareness on campus is not a lack of resources and information but a lack of conversation amongst students about these issues.
Although there are many on campus groups such as Sexual Health Awareness Group, The Safety ZONE and Sexual Awareness for Everyone, in addition to a number of groups providing resources to LGBT community, students do not always show a positive attitude in accepting or seeking out these resources.
“Safety ZONE, they pass out condoms, and that’s great — I was part of Safety ZONE, and I was part of handing out these packets, and you say, ‘Hey, free condoms! Free lube!’ And kids look at you like, ‘What, are you kidding me?’ And they walk right by or they laugh or they go, ‘No, no, no, I don’t use those,’” Mancini said.
Mancini is also president of SMUT Magazine, a new publication dedicated to the opening up of dialogue in the Cornell community about sex and sexuality.
“The problem isn’t with Cornell in particular — that they’re not giving us funding, or they’re not providing us with these opportunities — but the students aren’t getting it out there as much as they should be,” Mancini said.