Its football team may be down a bit without Marcus Lattimore, but in the sexual health department, USC is back in the top 10.
Trojan Condoms’ Sexual Health Report Card, which compares and ranks more than 140 universities’ sexual health awareness programs each year, ranked USC No. 10 in its 2011 edition. After a No. 1 ranking in 2009 and a disappointing fall to No. 30 last year, we’re proud to see South Carolina among the elite again.
Rankings are always fluid, and sometimes purely nominal in nature, but we congratulate the university’s Student Health Center nonetheless. Its efforts to keep us all practicing safe sex habits and informing us how to stay healthy are crucial to the university.
While it’s easy to laugh or roll our eyes when the topic arises, we must keep in mind that sustaining positive, safe sexual health practices is critical to the wellness of our campus and society as a whole. We applaud the university for recognizing this and making the necessary options available to us.
It’s no secret the South in general has traditionally held a more conservative culture. In terms of sexual health, it is among the worst regions in the nation in many STI and AIDS statistical categories.
While we acknowledge abstinence is the only 100-percent effective way to prevent pregnancy and sexual infection, we must also realize students engage in sexual activity. We’re glad to see that the university is on the forefront, embracing progressive tactics and offering its students information so they can make their own well informed decisions.
It would be all too easy to write a ribald editorial about this topic. We resisted and instead want to congratulate the university on the ranking.
Go Cocks!
We’ll wrap it up with that.
