Condom hunt explodes with educated fun

Jack and Jill went up the hill to have some so-called fun.\nSophomore Jack forgot his hat.\nJunior Jill forgot her pill.\nAnd now they have a son.\nThe first annual Campus Condom Hunt is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m., April 2, in Ballantine Hall, Room 109. The CCH is sponsored by several student and Bloomington community groups, including the Student Global AIDS Campaign and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance.\nThe CCH is a social awareness campaign crafted from the minds of three human sexuality majors. Senior Molly Foos, sophomore and Indiana Daily Student copy editor Nicole Hindes and sophomore Cara Berg elicited the assistance of Kelly E. McBride, director of training at Bloomington Planned Parenthood. But the event "is in no way sponsored by Planned Parenthood," a CCH spokeswoman said.\nAbout 20 campus community members have offered to volunteer their time to promote safe sex practices throughout the campus population.\nThe organizing students do not intend for the 500 condoms to be used in sexual activity per se; rather, a CCH spokeswoman recommended the winning team use the 500 condoms to produce an art sculpture promoting "safe sex practices" or for a fraternity to put "a whole bunch in the bathroom." The second-place team will receive 250 condoms and the third place team will receive 100. \nAll participants will receive 12 condoms each, for free.\nCritics of college-age sexual activity cite relatively high sexually transmitted infection statistics, and some health experts especially worry about the sexual practice of "hook-up" dating patterns. According to the Centers for Disease Control, "The surest way to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from sexual intercourse, or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and you know is uninfected."\nCommon sexually transmitted diseases associated with unsafe sexual practices include, but are not limited to: HIV, the virus that causes AIDS; discharge diseases, like gonorrhea, chlamydia and trichomoniasis; genital ulcer diseases and the human papilloma virus. \nAccording to Planned Parenthood Federation of America, HPV, in fact, is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. -- infecting about 20 million Americans.\nPPFA claims about 75 percent of reproductive aged Americans have been infected with genital HPV at some point in their lives, whether or not he or she was able to diagnosis the infection. HPV has been scientifically linked to increased rates of cervical cancer in women.\nDespite the benefits of having condoms readily available, some students are baffled about the prospect of winning hundreds of them.\n"I don't know what I'd do with 500 condoms," said senior Becca Schultz. "A bunch of friends and I were thinking of going on the condom hunt for fun. It should be a good time."\nThe Campus Condom Hunt is expected to be a foot race across campus, as teams of three to five students will hustle from stop to stop along the condom hunt trail. Interested students, Bloomington residents and guests should email mfoos@indiana.edu by Tuesday to register. \nSenior Liz Milne said she has seen hundreds of condoms "thrown places" before, but she said she has never seen 500 condoms "contained." Milne said she does not "have an interest in collecting 500 condoms."\n"I would toss them around like the Pizza Express guy," Milne said, "I don't know (what I would do with them), hand them out? I would say (to students): 'Use a condom. That's the bottom line. Try it, because (sexual activity) is safer that way.'"\nOn the one hand, promoting condom use on campus might encourage students to consider multiple forms of protection, such as birth control pills plus a condom or a condom plus a diaphragm, during sexual activity.\nOn the other hand, since safe student plus student sex often involves at most birth control pills or at the very least condom use, the CDC offers the following recommendation: "While condom use has been associated with a lower risk of cervical cancer, the use of condoms should not be a substitute for routine screening with Pap smears to detect and prevent cervical cancer."\nSchultz said she the overwhelming number of condoms being given to the winners seems straight from a Hollywood script. Similar to Milne, Schultz said she imagined 500 condoms floating through the air.\n"You picture movies, they go up in a big hot air balloon and drop money," Schultz said. "It's kind of the same thing."\n-- Contact City & State Editor David A. Nosko at dnosko@indiana.edu.