With a 2.36 GPA on the Trojan Sexual Health Report Card, the U has a bit of studying to do when it comes to sexual awareness.
Ranked 76 out of 139 universities in the 2007 report, the U dropped to 104 in 2008. The report ranks schools on health center activities in promoting sexual awareness.
“For whatever reason, among the student body (at the U) is a rather large portion that is unaware of the services,” said Bert Sperling, president of Sperling’s BestPlaces, the firm that did the research for the report card.
“The big part of the problem is that we are off campus,” said Rachel Crane, health adviser at the U student health center.
The health center is located off campus on Foothill Boulevard in the Madsen Health Center, near the LDS Institute.
“The U had pretty good scores across the board,” Sperling said. “The students’ attitudes were significantly below average.”
The center provides HIV testing, free condoms to students and presentations on sexually transmitted infections.
“The biggest resistance is that students don’t think (sex is) happening,” Crane said. “We do have the services available.”
The center achieved an average score for factors such as hours of operation, days of the week available and availability of drop-in appointments as opposed to scheduled appointments.
The survey asked students if there are feelings of trustworthiness when they go to the center and requested suggestions for improvements needed.
“I didn’t even know we had a student health center,” said Jonathan Hilton, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at the U.
The U ranked lowest for the services the center offers, receiving a grade of 39.1 percent.
“The more information provided to the students, the better choices they can make towards sexual health,” Sperling said.
Sperling said the report card is designed to raise awareness of sexual issues on college campuses and show the different centers where improvement is needed so they can make the proper adjustments. He said a common misconception is that the report is there to tell the centers what they need to improve on.