ASU was ranked 119th out of 139 in a sexual health resources study of American colleges and universities released this week.
Trojan, a condom retailer, sponsored the 2008 Trojan Sexual Health Report Card.
Sperling’s BestPlaces, an independent research firm in Portland conducted the study.
The company’s president, Bert Sperling, said there were 13 main criteria the company used to evaluate each school’s sexual health resources program.
Among them were hours of operation, whether or not the school had an entirely separate program for sexual awareness, availability, cost and location of HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infection testing, contraceptives and information regarding them, lecture and outreach programs and a usable Web site.
Sperling said the company found ASU’s Health and Wellness Web site difficult to navigate.
“We saw that there are no student peer groups or a sexual assault program,” he said.
ASU also has no outlet for students to anonymously receive advice from health professionals, he said.
From March to June the company administered an anonymous survey to students attending the 139 schools through Facebook.
ASU had 64 responses, which was the national average, he said.
The group received 9,000 responses nationwide.
The survey asked five questions including whether students would use the health program, how trustworthy and complete services are and if the program needs to improve.
“The student responses echoed what we saw in our evaluation, and the correlation validated our research,” Sperling said.
In the survey, 80 percent of respondents said ASU Health and Wellness Services needs to improve.
Dr. Allan Markus, director of Campus Health Services, told local talk radio station KTAR he suspects ASU’s low ranking in the survey may be because ASU does not purchase or use Trojan condoms.
The State Press attempted to speak with Markus, but the University did not approve an interview by press time.
No one from Health and Wellness Services was approved to comment on ASU’s ranking in the study.
Joseph Gallego, a Spanish sophomore has used campus Health and Wellness Services for HIV testing twice since he became an ASU student.
“They eased me into the process and offered a lot of follow-up support,” he said.
Gallego said he appreciates the fact that ASU offers rapid testing so students don’t have to wait more than 20 minutes for results.
“The only reason I even knew about testing was because I walked by a woman sitting at a table during AIDS Awareness Week,” Gallego said. “[STD testing] is this weird taboo thing that no one talks about.”
Gallego said sexual health resources aren’t generally advertised across campus and that the Web site doesn’t offer enough information.
“I had all of my questions answered,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have even gone in if it hasn’t been for that woman.”
The No. 1 ranked school in the survey was Stanford University.
“Stanford had uniformly high scores in student responses,” Sperling said.
The school has an extensive and thorough sexual health program, he said.
UA was ranked 39.
Reach the reporter at tessa.muggeridge@asu.edu.
