The University ranked 56th in the nation overall sexual health, according to a survey conducted by Trojan. This is down from the University’s 48th ranking last year.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
The University of Kansas lost to Kansas State University and the University of Missouri this week, but it wasn’t in sports. According to the Trojan Sexual Health Report Card Rankings, the University is 56th in the nation, behind Kansas State at 47th and Missouri at 48th.
The University’s ranking dropped from 48th last year, when Missouri was 64th and Kansas State was 84th.
The rankings were based on a cumulative grade point average, calculating a university’s performance in 13 categories. These categories judged the availability and ease of use of a university’s sexual health services.
The University received a 2.71 on a 4.0 scale.
The firm BestPlaces conducted the research for Trojan condoms. Bert Sperling, firm creator, said the research was meant to highlight the importance sexual health education.
“We looked at the information available to the students,” Sperling said, “The more information they get and the more services they get the better decisions they can make and stay healthy.”
Sperling used three methods in researching. There was a survey sent to health centers at the 141 universities in the study, asking about their services and availability. The health center’s Web sites were evaluated for usability. And lastly a survey of students’ impressions of health centers was conducted through Facebook.
According to Bruce Tetreault, group product manager for Trojan, the results were then put into a ranking to better catch the attention of students.
“We need to drive awareness of sexual health,” Tetreault said. “What better way than to rank schools? People love rankings.”
Ken Sarber, public health educator at KU Student Health Services, remains skeptical.
“They’re more interested in selling Trojan condoms than getting the facts straight,” Sarber said.
Sarber also said he remembered their survey asking whether the University had machines for students to buy contraceptives on campus. According to Sarber the University chooses not to do this, because of reported cases of such machines being broken into and robbed at other universities. Student Health Services prefers distributing condoms to resident assistants to be given freely to students, along with information on proper usage.
Saphire Stockman, Kansas City, Kan. sophomore, said she recognized the need for improvement at the University.
“Sex education is obviously something that could be worked on,” Stockman said. “Formal education on safe sex is really important.”
Sperling explained that the University scored above average across the board, except that there is not a regular column dealing with sexual health in the University Daily Kansan. He also offered the explanation that a place lowering can be caused just as much by another university’s rise as another’s shortcomings.
Lauren Hendrick contributed reporting to this story.
— Edited by Tim Burgess
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