Tuesday October 9, 2001

Sexual awareness enhancement is occurring in various ways at UA, through upbeat residence hall activities and Campus Health programs.

Manzanita-Mohave Residence Hall played host to a sex education activity called the Condom Quiz Bowl Wednesday.

"The main purpose of the Condom Quiz Bowl was to educate the students about sexual decisions, so whichever side of the coin they choose, they'll make healthy decisions that they can live with," said hall director Tricia Schwery, who organized the event with Lee Ann Hamilton, a Health Prevention and Promotion educator for the Campus Health Center.

The sex information was presented in a game show format in order to provide an interactive, entertaining method relaying facts and statistics.

"Sometimes sex education material can be very dry, but this information was given in a fun, exciting, upbeat way," Schwery said.

One student who attended the event said the activities were enjoyable and educational.

"The Condom Quiz Bowl addressed all the issues that are important and promoted awareness of the subject," said Joe Prindle, a psychology freshman. "They presented information in a way that was fun and I learned a lot."

About 60 students participated in the Quiz Bowl and voiced their positive reaction to the event.

"The last thing we asked was if the students learned anything and if they had a good time and everyone said 'yes,'" Schwery said. "With about 60 people, it was a great turnout."

Health Prevention and Promotion Services handed out brochures at the Quiz Bowl to "inform people and break stereotypes so they won't think everyone's doing it when everyone's not," Schwery said.

The Health Prevention and Promotion Services is further promoting sexual awareness all over UA.

"Our 'Sex Talk' column in the Daily Wildcat gives students a confidential venue to submit question about sex and relationships and receive answers from a guaranteed professional," said Melissa McGee, a Health Prevention and Promotion educator. "We try to answer as many questions as we can in the paper. We cannot communicate with students via e-mail because we don't want to jeopardize their safety or confidentiality in any way, but if they are desperate and need an answer immediately, they can contact us by phone."

"Sex Talk" questions can be submitted to sex@u.arizona.edu. The program has been active since 1998 and was named Best Health Education Program by the Pacific Coast College Education Program.

An offshoot of "Sex Talk" is the newsletter distributed to residence halls.

"We're really pleased with the 'Sex Talk' newsletter. Last year, we had four newsletters, and in a survey, our readership rate was 97 percent," McGee said.

There is also a Contraception 101 interactive education program that teaches basic sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy prevention that can be located on the UA health education online library under the heading "sexual health."

All of these efforts are being made in an attempt to make sex education an open, commonly discussed topic at UA and to educate students about safe sex.

"In our society, sex tends to be a taboo topic to talk about," McGee said. "What we have found is that a lot of students have questions or misconceptions about their bodies or health, and they don't feel comfortable talking to peers or parents about it, so we provide an outlet."

A variety of contraceptive methods are available through the Campus Health Pharmacy: birth control pills, condoms, female condoms, diaphragms, Depo-Provera, spermicides and emergency contraception.

However, RU-486, a pill women may take to carry out an abortion, cannot be obtained at the Campus Health Center, and walk-in HIV testing is no longer offered.

"RU-486 has to be carried out and followed through with highly specialized treatment, so we don't offer it here," said Kim Birmingham, a Campus Health pharmacist. "People can still make appointments at Campus Health for HIV testing if they call beforehand and specify the purpose of the appointment."