The University of Wisconsin is hosting the second annual “Sexy Week,” an event organized by the College Democrats of Madison to raise awareness about sexual health and encourage students to be open about their sexual curiosities.

The events kicked off Monday and will last four days. Activities include sexual health discussions, films on the history of Planned Parenthood in Wisconsin and pleasure workshops.

Molly Rivera, chair of the College Democrats of UW-Madison, said spreading the word about sexual health and educating students on different things relating to sex are two of the main goals behind Sexy Week.

“Wisconsin has one of the highest chlamydia rates in the country and this is a result of poor sex education,” Rivera said. “It shouldn’t be assumed that [young adults] know how to have a healthy sex life.”

Sexy Week began Monday with a film detailing the birth control movement and will be followed by a workshop with Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment on Tuesday, which is aimed at breaking gender norms.

The events will then proceed with a discussion panel on sex education Wednesday — which includes Rep. Donna Seidel, D-Wausau — and a pleasure workshop Thursday hosted by Sex Out Loud.

Craig Roberts, epidemiologist for University Health Services, said events like this remind people they need to worry about things such as contraception, sexually transmitted infections and overall sexual health.

“For some people, events like this do raise awareness,” Roberts said. “I think it is very helpful to have students out there doing this because they can be more effective at it than we can.”

Roberts added UHS also plays a role in events like these due to their backing of many organizations such as Sex Out Loud and other outreach groups.

“Students tend to have a real interest in stuff like this and we certainly want to support them,” Roberts said.

A recent study by Trojan held among colleges nationwide ranked UW 43 out of 141 colleges as far as sexual health was concerned this year. This was a drop of eight points from the previous year.

While Rivera said the study had nothing to do with the organizing of Sexy Week, this week’s events do play a major role in removing a boundary between students and access to information on sexual health.

“I think it is important for college organizations to communicate with students about sexual health,” Rivera said.

Rivera said there were several reasons for this low ranking, but a lot has to do with students’ lack of openness about as sexual health being a huge concern.

According to Rivera, events like “Sexy Week” are organized in order for students to openly express their feelings about sex and to also be able to learn new things along the way.

“It is important for the College Democrats to break that barrier and open up communication with students,” Rivera said.