Publication: Brown Daily Herald

Genre: News Feature

Free Study in the Mail to Study Safe Sex on Campus

Project CARES (Condom Accessibility and Responsibility for Every Student), an

on-campus research study on students’ sexual health, launches this February under the
direction of Ben Colburn ’10. As spring creeps onto campus, student participants will
receive 42 condoms in their mailboxes and complete two surveys about how they use
them; Colburn hopes the information gathered about students’ sexual health will help
determine the most effective way to encourage safe sex on campus.
As of now, society knows little about college students’ sexual health. Nationally,
adolescents ages 18-25 report a condom usage rate of 50%, according to Naomi
Ninneman, a Brown University Health Educator specializing in sexual education. But for
the most part, these statistics do not exist specifically for college campuses.
Colburn first noticed the ignorance at an on-campus AIDS test he attended last
year. He said students seemed anxious.
“I heard a lot of interest in people wanting to know their status,” said Colburn.
“They felt they were safe because they were in the Brown bubble but also saying, ‘I think
I may have been doing something that might put me at risk.’”
Curiosity piqued, Colburn administered a survey on the next test date to explore
students’ perceptions of safe sex, HIV transmission and general sexual activity. His 61
participants did not amount to statistical significance, but his data hinted towards
practices of unsafe sex on campus. Most people knew high-risk activities, but sat
confused about which body fluids transmitted HIV. Participants also reported a condom
usage rate on par with the national average of only 50%.

Project CARES aims to turn this preliminary research into official statistics.
The group consists of Colburn, 7 friends and 3 mentors: Dr. Ken Mayer, a Brown
University medical professor who works at the Fenway Institute in Boston, Dr. Cynthia
Rosengard, a sexual health specialist at Lifespan and Rhode Island Hospital, and Dr.
Matthew Mimiaga, a biostatician and post-doc at Harvard school of Public Health.
Funding comes from Youth Venture, which invests in youths’ socially conscious start-
ups, and GAIA (Global Alliance to Immunize Against AIDS), a local NGO that also runs
an on-campus group to promote HIV awareness.
Subjects must be between the ages of 18 and 25 and on campus for the spring
semester. Researchers prefer subjects be sexually active. And, as Colburn’s low-budget
study cannot handle the necessary 204 members of each sex needed to make his research
statistically significant, participants must be “biologically” male; literature suggests the
study would have more impact with males as the target group, according to Colburn.
The study consists of a series of online surveys. Participants will complete the
first questionnaire the last week of January and will then receive seven condoms in their
mailbox every two weeks for three months. At the end of the May, they will complete
another survey testing any changes in sexual activity.
“If you have tons of sex without condoms because your girlfriend is on the pill,
that’s fine,” said Colburn. “We just want to get baseline information to see what the
general sexual health is for Brown.”
The study’s success depends largely on its participants. Currently, Colburn has
gathered around 17 subjects through table slips, advertisement in The Herald, on
Facebook, talking to fraternity heads and word of mouth. He hopes an incentive program
that offers tea, coffee, barbeques and money to Miko’s Exotic Wear will encourage
students to recruit their friends.
“I have 5 boxes of 10,000 condoms sitting in GAIA’s downtown offices that I
want to get rid of,” said Colburn.
Participants’ honesty is also important, since data depends solely on their
answers.
“We’re not going to ask them to send condoms back to us,” said Colburn. “In any
social science, it’s pretty imprecise and ultimately you have to depend on people that
they’re telling the truth.”
Honest answers are the only way Colburn can test the University’s condom
distribution system, which is one of the largest components of the study. Currently,
Health Services supplies Durex condoms in their first and third floor bathrooms, and
relies on Residential Peer Leaders (RPLs) to pick up condoms to supply their residence
halls. Under an honors system, students pay $0.15 per condom. However, Colburn’s
preliminary research suggests that this system needs improvement.
The $0.15 price tag is a problem, according to Colburn. He says $0.15 is an
awkward denomination and students believe they should be receiving condoms at no
charge.
“People are resentful because other schools get them for free,” he said. “They
feel like Brown is ripping them off.”
“There are definitely issues with it,” said Eva Kolker ’10, a Residential Counselor
in Wayland. She said that in many cases, charging for public condoms is a way to
indicate high quality.
“But here we’re using Durex, and people know it’s good quality,” she said. “I
understand health ed wants [the price] as a token, but the point is we want people to have
safe sex. So why not just let people take?”
She assumes that if the University abolished payment, the system would be more
effective because students would take condoms for precautionary measures.
“If you’re right in the moment, you don’t want to run out to your RC’s door,” she
said. “Especially dealing with first years. They still think the rules matter,” she laughs.
“You don’t want them to have to hesitate by charging.”
Jason Ma ’10 is indifferent to the price tag on a condom. “It would be great if they
were free,” he said. “But if I need a condom, I’m going to get a condom.”
Accordingly, students do appear to abide by the honors system. “People actually
do pay me,” said Kolker. “I’ll notice condoms gone and then a few days later, I’ll have
money in my door.”
Ninneman agreed that in general, the honors system is a success. She said that
though RPLs often sound surprised when they drop off money, the fact is they are
bringing money in. “We don’t get 100% of the money,” she said. “But we come pretty
close.”
Besides the price for protection, Colburn claims that the system’s logistics create
problems. Participation in the program is not mandatory, and an online survey of RPLs
suggests that many are “too lazy or too tired” to walk to Health Services to replenish their
dorm’s supplies.
Ninneman, however, noted that just last week Health Services held an open house
for RPLs and said that she makes every attempt to remind RPLs to check supplies.
Yet another issue, Colburn says, is the public display of protection. Condoms are
kept on counselors’ doors, and many felt the system was intimidating.
“Think about Keeney, where it’s hallways for miles and if someone sees you it’s
like, oh, you’re having sex,” said Colburn. “It’s very stigmatizing.”
Ma has never used the University’s condom distribution system, but he believes
students shouldn’t be uncomfortable getting a condom from such public areas. “I mean,
you’re having sex,” he said. “We’re legal, we’re grown. Just do it.”
Condoms in the first and third floor bathrooms of health services offer an
alternative to both RPL negligence and anxiety over taking condoms on public display.
However, Colburn believes this does not solve the whole problem.
“If you go to health services, it’s not like you have to say to a 55 year old nurse,
I’m about to engage in vaginal intercourse, may I have a condom?” said Colburn “But
just like RPLs don’t want to walk across campus, students don’t want to go to health
services to get a condom.”
Colburn hopes to address these issues and more concerning sexual health at
Brown with Project CARES. Ultimately, he wants students to practice safe sex.
Though health services said that lack of funding is an obstacle to collaboration,
Ninneman said they are definitely interested in Colburn’s results and share his ultimate
goal. She said health services has a large sexual education program including lectures,
programs, table slips, RPL training, counseling and an extensive sexual education
website.
This website is a “huge resource” that many students aren’t aware of, according to
Ninneman. “We get lots of hits but not as many from Brown campus as from off of
Brown campus,” she said. “I get questions from people who are not Brown students.”
Ninneman, who assumed her position as health educator in August, said that
promoting the website is one of her goals. She wants students on campus to be aware of
the best way to protect themselves and believes that Colburn’s study will contribute to
these efforts.
“We’re on your side,” Colburn said. “We want you to be sexually safe.”

Interested students should email projectcares@gmail.com.

http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/