We can imagine most of our readers aren’t accustomed

to receiving a failing grade, but perhaps this is one

report card full of “Fs” that you’ll be proud to show

your parents.

Trojan (the condom manufacturers) and Sperling’s Best

Places released the Trojan Sexual Health Report on

Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2006, which purports to grade the sexual health of 100 universities around the nation. According to the Deseret Morning News, BYU finished dead last for a variety of reasons: we don’t have any sex education information posted on byu.edu, we don’t have condoms or other contraceptives available in the dorms, we don’t sponsor a sex education week each semester and we don’t have a sex advice columnist on campus.

The Daily Universe accepts full responsibility for the

last goose egg, but in all honesty, we don’t feel too

bad about flunking this test.

The survey attests to BYU students’ increasingly

peculiar status in the world. As concern increases

over sexually transmitted diseases, talk of abstinence

is becoming an alien phrase when it should be the

dominant part of the discussion. After all, the best

prevention program is still abstinence before marriage

and unwavering loyalty throughout marriage. Sadly, the

Deseret Morning News article only referenced the

concept a few times.

We don’t discount the survey sponsor’s intention; they

have a lofty goal. They want to increase awareness

about sexually transmitted diseases and help college

students avoid them — a perfectly justifiable cause.

After all, the Deseret Morning News reported 65

million Americans live with incurable STDs. This is an

epidemic that could easily overwhelm the United States

if it is not kept in check. We are extremely

interested in preventing the spread of STDs; our

university’s methods just differ from most of the

nation’s.

The survey probably wasn’t meant to be scientific in

any sense of the word, but their methods still leave a

lot to be desired. Sperling’s Best Places

representatives never contacted a single person at

BYU. They just cruised the university Web site to see

if we measure up to their standard of practicing safe

sex.

We don’t post sex education information because each

student that enrolls at BYU vows to live a life of

abstinence until marriage. If the surveyors collected

data on rates of STDs on campus, as BYU professor

Terry Olson suggested, they probably would replace

BYU’s botched score with a solid 4.0.

When all is said and done, the survey won’t prompt any

changes at BYU. It will stand as yet another testament

that others think our beliefs and values are

old-fashioned and unusual, but those are

classifications we willingly accept.

We will still strive to follow the Honor Code’s

standard of chastity. Students may ask, however, why

The Daily Universe doesn’t have a dating columnist. We

would love to have one, but unfortunately we’re still

looking for someone with anything worth saying.



Copyright Brigham Young University 25 Sep 2006