People passing by the St. Paul Student Center on Tuesday stopped and gasped as students tried to stifle giggles while playing “Sexual Roulette.”
The trivia game was one of many activities held to celebrate the University’s Healthy Sexuality Week, running Oct. 4 through Oct. 8.
Organized by Sexual Health Awareness and Disease Education, a Boynton Health Service peer health education program, the week is designed to provide basic safe sex information and encourages students to consider healthy sexuality.
“If Healthy Sexuality Week accomplishes nothing else, we hope that it stimulates conversation among partners and friends about what it means to be sexually healthy,” said Hillary Vogt, Sexual Health Awareness and Disease Education co-coordinator.
Dave Dorman, a Boynton Health Service health educator, said sexual activity can be compared to gambling.
“A lot of decisions people make about sex are a gamble, so hopefully people will learn to make the right ones,” Dorman said. “There is greater permission today than ever before to talk about sex. Many years ago, sex was only mentioned jokingly, but now, we can teach students that sex can also be discussed seriously.”
A 1998 Boynton Health Service study found that 42 percent of single University students were sexually abstinent during the proceeding 12 months, while 47 percent of sexually active undergraduates had used a condom during their last intercourse.
Student contestant Kara Koehler, part of the St. Paul Student Center programming committee, said, “It’s important to promote a campus environment that’s educated about healthy sexual behavior and issues.”
Sexual Health Awareness and Disease Education co-coordinator Virginia Olin said, “Our sexuality doesn’t exist in a vacuum. To the extent that someone is healthy in many areas of life improves the chances for making sexually healthy choices.”
Students playing “Sexual Roulette” giggled when Dorman asked questions like, “Is soap a good lubricant for fooling around in the shower?” and, “Is it true that a woman reaches her sexual peak at 30?”
But despite the students’ uneasiness, they displayed their knowledge of sexuality by answering many of the trivia questions correctly.