Would you know what to do if your condom broke? You should because almost half of pregnancies are unplanned.

Do you know the symptoms of chlamydia? (Here’s a hint: In most cases, there are none!) But it is the most frequently reported bacterial sexually transmitted disease in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How about the effectiveness of birth control? There is no method that is proven to be 100 percent effective.

Many students do not know the answers to these questions — but want them.

Trisha Fader, senior sports administration major, says she thinks incoming freshmen should have sex education during college orientation, which is their first week on campus.

“I don’t think (sexual) safety is practiced enough,” says Fader. “If they don’t have it, then after the first week of school, they’re screwed — literally!”

On the other hand, not all new students want sex education.

“I wouldn’t go,” says Karli Balmenti, freshman art education major. “If it was required then I would go, but I wouldn’t like it. I think I got enough in high school.”

Uterus and Fallopian tubes and ovaries, oh my!
Sarah Hallsky, graduate assistant in the Office of Health Promotion at the DeWeese Health Center, says there is not enough sex education on campus.

Hallsky has created and facilitated programs on campus concerning sexual health, skin health, body issues and suicide, and she is also involved in the World AIDS Day and LifeShare Blood Drives. During the sexual health programs, which she is asked to present in Human Sexuality courses, personal health courses and residence hall programs, she stresses the need to use condoms.

“I don’t care if it is your 180th partner, I want you to wear a condom and go for regular testing,” she says. “I am not here to judge. I just don’t want you to end up with AIDS or herpes.”

Hallsky says she tries to focus on specifics.

“I am telling students to use condoms, but I am not going out there thinking that they don’t already know that they should,” she says. She says students do not understand that there are different sizes of condoms, or just because condoms say they are lubricated doesn’t mean extra lubricant is not needed.

Hallsky says she would like to see condom vending machines next to pop machines in the Hub; however, this seems a long way off, considering condoms and birth control are not discussed with incoming freshmen.

In fact, according to a 2005 Plain Dealer column by Connie Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning Kent State alumna, Kent State removed a brochure providing birth control information from the freshmen orientation packets in 1979.

“Apparently someone in Kent State University’s administrative maze thought that teenagers with quivering hormones and no parental supervision for the first time in their lives could be deterred from pursuing their natural urges as long as they knew how to join an intramural football team and where to find the best hoagie,” she wrote.

Michael Lillie, assistant director in the Center for Student Involvement, says he is not aware of any current birth control pamphlets or if they had been distributed in the past.

“It is not what we focus on during this time,” he says, referring to the Week of Welcome freshmen are required to attend before their first semester. It is more about getting students acclimated to the campus, he says.

Lillie says sex education may be covered in the weekly orientation class freshmen attend during their first semester.

As a requirement of the university orientation course, freshmen must attend one health issue presentation — a presentation or lecture about health-related topics including nutrition, body image and pet therapy.

Only six of 33 presentations are sex-related. The National Organization of Men’s Outreach for Rape Education presentation discusses rape, and “Relationships: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” discusses the positives and negatives of relationships.

The Women’s Resource Center offers two presentations, and the topic of women’s health is covered twice.

It is not mandatory that students attend one of these six presentations. Instead, they can attend presentations such as “Marijuana: Friend or foe?” or can avoid attending a presentation by giving blood at the American Red Cross Blood Drive.

Human Sexuality instructor Dawn Kearns says there is enough sex education on campus, but students are not taking advantage of it.

“I think there is a difference between putting sex education out there expecting students to find it and saying we think this is important enough that it is required,” she says.

As of now, only certain majors, such as education and community health, are required to take Human Sexuality.

Laurie Wagner, a part-time instructor who also teaches a section of the Human Sexuality course, says all students, especially underclassmen, need accurate information about sex education.

“The first semester or quarter, students are at the highest risk for rape, unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections because they are unaware of the consequences of their actions,” she says. “I am just alarmed at where students say they get their information,” she says. Most students’ sexual education is from personal experiences, friends, the Internet and television, she says, all of which can contain false and dangerous information.

Kearns says students do not know their own bodies.

“You would think every woman knows they have a uterus, Fallopian tubes and ovaries,” she says. “But they don’t! Men definitely don’t know their internal anatomy — and that’s their own bodies!” she says, referring to a male student who labeled the urethra as the “pee hole.”

Beyond porn and Jell-O shots
Human Sexuality used to be a lower-division course, but now it is an upper-division course, which means it is only offered to juniors and seniors, Wagner says.

“It is slightly unfortunate, but the maturity level is not quite there with freshmen,” she says. Even the upperclassmen who take the class have a skewed view of its content.

“Students think Human Sexuality (the course) is about porn and Jell-O shots, but they will have to do some work,” she says. Wagner says one of her biggest class objectives is helping students realize sexuality is broad and complex. “It’s not just about the best positions. We cover upsetting issues as well, such as porn, rape and abortion.”

Students in Kearns’ class are required to write four reaction papers on speakers or videos shown in class. She says every year she has many students write, “I was shocked to learn ... ” and “I didn’t know ... ” With these types of reactions, it is obvious students who do not take the class are missing out on important information, she says.

Another objective of the class is to help students become more tolerant of people who are different from them in sexual orientation and gender identity, she says.

Wagner has similar objectives. “I want to provide students with the most accurate variety of information and arm them with a body of skills, including critical thinking and healthy communication skills,” she says. “This class is students’ first opportunity to think and talk about sex issues without judgment.”

Junior psychology major Alex Bea says she took Human Sexuality in fall 2005 because she thought it would be interesting. She says she recommends the class to everyone.

“We had condom races,” she says. “We were all given models of penises. Then we had to see who could open the condoms up and get them on the penises the fastest. It was a fun day.” She also says it is a great class because there is a lot of information, and anyone who takes it would definitely be prepared for sexual relationships later in life.

Get the ‘hook-up’
Extensive sexual health information is also available at the Women’s Resource Center, which has a library with more than 1,200 books and about 100 pamphlets pertaining to women’s studies and sexual health. Students can check out books or take home pamphlets about sexual assault, STDs and relationships. The center distributes condoms and moisture dams as well.

The center also hands out the “Healthy Hook-up Kit,” which contains a condom, breath mint, pick up lines, date rape warning signs and tips for a healthy hook-up, says Hilda Pettit, Women’s Resource Center coordinator.

“The kits are humorous, yet useful,” she says. “There is also a card with all the local numbers to get help. This way, no matter where you are, you will have the numbers to call.”

The choices students make now can affect them for the rest of their lives, Pettit says. This is why students, especially freshmen, need sex education.

“Freshmen now have a huge amount of independence, and they try it all out within the first two weeks,” she says. “There is no one to say, ‘Don’t forget your condoms,’ or ‘Don’t forget to come home tonight!’”

Playing around with sex
Safe sex has become Hallsky’s mission.

During her programs, she grabs the attention of the students by asking, “How long do you think it takes to put on a condom?” When students respond “about 10 seconds,” she replies with, “OK, then let me see you do all eight steps in 10 seconds.” That usually does the trick, she says. Then, to keep their attention, she has the students fill condoms with a gallon of water to show how strong the condoms are. Because the condoms are so stretched out, it is the perfect time to try lubricants on the thin material, she says. Some lubricants will cause the condom to break, and some won’t. It is a fun experiment, and students can take something from it, she says.

“I have noticed students act like it is their first time seeing (condoms),” she says, referring to her demonstration. She stresses sexually active students need to become familiar with them. “If it takes opening a bunch of condoms and playing with them, then do it.”

Yet it is important to be careful even when using a condom, Hallsky says.

“(Condoms) protect you really well, but it is not like wearing a latex suit,” she says. “If someone has herpes, you can still get it.”

According to a fact sheet for public health personnel on the CDC Web site, latex condoms, when properly used, can reduce the risk of STD transmission. However, no protective method is 100 percent effective.

To force students to think about some of these risky situations, Hallsky created a game called “Sexes Hold’em.” The game is played with a deck of cards, and each card has a “What would you do?” scenario on it. Students then think critically about the answer and what the best-case scenario for each situation would be.

During the program, Hallsky also asks questions such as, “Do you have health insurance?,” “Do you go for a Pap test every year?” and “Did you ever think that you may need to set aside money to buy condoms?”

Hallsky promotes condom use outside of her programs as well. She helped Eta Sigma Gamma, the national professional honorary for men and women in health education, with one of its fundraisers. Participants could win a jar of condoms, lubricant and candy. For $1, they got one guess at how many condoms were in the jar. The closest guess won. The table was set up for seven hours at the Black Squirrel Festival, but the honorary received only six guesses.

Even if you can’t win them, condoms are available at the online pharmacy. “They are three for $1, and they are good ones,” Hallsky said. “Lifestyles.”

Brianne Carlon is a senior magazine journalism major. This is her third story for The Burr.