Trojan: UW safe at sex

by Pedro Oliveira Jr.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 00:00

The University of Wisconsin has been branded one of the nation's 15 most sexually healthy campuses in the nation, a notable improvement from last year's ranking.

UW received a 3.36 "grade point average" in the Trojan Brand Condoms' 2007 Sexual Health Report Card, improving seven positions from 2006's results.

The report card is part of Trojan's national campaign called "Evolve," an effort to increase the national sexual health level of awareness on college campuses.

The survey was conducted by Sperling's BestPlaces, and the data was collected through interviews with health centers on campuses across the nation.

"We were quite surprised and gratified by our findings," Sperling's BestPlaces President Bert Sperling said in a statement. "The top-ranking schools made significant improvements to their programming — due in part, we hope, to last year's study results — and they deserve to be commended."

The 139 colleges and universities selected to be a part of the survey were judged in 11 different categories ranging from condom and contraception availability to sexually transmitted infection testing to the number of lecture outreach programs available to students.

The University of Minnesota and University of Wyoming were the highest-ranked institutions with 3.91 GPAs, and the lowest-ranked were the University of Louisiana and Louisiana Tech University, with 0.91 and 0.82 GPAs, respectively.

Sperling's BestPlaces and Trojan Brand Condoms executives were not available for additional comment as of press time.

Michael Bruno, from Edelman Public Relations and speaking on behalf of Trojan, said company representatives have been traveling across the country and talking to several college students to study problems they are facing, hoping to develop a better availability of resources to promote more healthy sexual practices.

"I remember three years ago people weren't necessarily free to write about sexual health or getting the resources they needed," Bruno said. "There were no free condoms, [free] opportunities to get tested for HIV or rape counseling."

The survey conductors also took into consideration electronic feedback sent by 3,300 college students nationwide.