Every year, Trojan condoms ranks the sexual health of more than 100 American colleges and universities. The group represents every state and major athletic conference.
St. John’s is consistently ranked among the lowest schools in this group, this year coming in second-to-last place at 140. But don’t panic and schedule an appointment with your doctor just yet.
It should not come as a surprise that St. John’s, the second largest Catholic university in the nation, isn’t considered highly on Trojan’s “Sexual Health Report Card.” After all, contraceptives and premarital sex violate Catholic doctrine.
In fact, six of the 10 lowest ranked schools are religious institutions, and the three lowest rated schools are Catholic. The University of Notre Dame is ranked at 130 and DePaul University, the largest Catholic university in the country, is ranked dead last.
Furthermore, of the top 10 highest ranked schools on the list, there are no Catholic schools. There isn’t even one religiously founded school in the 50th percentile of Trojan’s list. The reason for this is a fairly logical one.
While the goal of Trojan’s list is to rate the sexual health of major schools across the country, they do so by “measuring the availability of sexual health resources and information to their students.” So while Trojan’s list may be an obvious sign that most Catholic institutions do not readily provide condoms and sexual awareness programs to their students, it does not say anything about the specific sexual health of St. John’s students. The list does not consider the amount of students on campus carrying sexually transmitted diseases, nor does Trojan even have access to those kinds of statistics. St. John’s lowly ranking is a reflection of the Catholic element of the school’s mission, nothing else. It doesn’t mean the students of this University are more sexually unhealthy than any of the million other students around the country.
But while students at St. John’s shouldn’t necessarily fret over Trojan’s ranking, the list does have its merits and should raise questions for students and administration.
The list illuminates the absence of HIV testing, inefficient health center resources, and programs that teach students the dangers of unprotected sex and reach out to victims of sexual assault. Trojan raises the question, how essential are these resources on modern college campuses?
Ivy League schools like Stanford, Columbia, Cornell and Brown set the golden standard in education and student life, so if these same top institutions are consistently leading the nation on Trojan’s report, shouldn’t this indicate a red flag for schools like St. John’s
that fall far behind?
Whether the issue sits right with their mission statement, every school has a responsibility to educate and protect their students, especially
schools with residents.
The Trojan report is not the entire picture when observing a school’s actual sexual health, but it provides a catalyst for discussion. The report indicates the poor consciousness that many universities have of their students. It’s not responsible for college administrators to maintain a narrow view of student sexuality, regardless of their religious or moral views.
