Andy Garate

Earlier this semester, flyers began to circulate around the UNR campus featuring a man and a woman nuzzling and appearing to be just inches from an enjoyable kiss. The text on the blue and yellow flyer reads, “Where are you N?” and has a website on the bottom right corner. It is impossible to understand what is being advertised or sold until you flip the flyer to the backside, which reads “Be N on Your Sex Life.” The flyer then gives a list of facts on safe sex and (for shock value) explains that the rates of Chlamydia and Gonorrhea at UNR are twice the national college rate.

These statistics come from data released in spring of 2007, but the print ads were released in the spring of this year. Enid Jennings who works for the student health center at UNR is heading the new social marketing campaign, called “the N crowd”, which has the sole purpose of getting people information and resources on how to have safer sex and get UNR back to a less shocking STD rate.

“We want to market as if we are Apple or Starbucks, we want our name and logo to be recognized,” said Jennings. “We’re just trying to drive people to check out our website and get informed.”

The website, www.myncrowd.com, addresses the four major health problems on the UNR campus according to Jennings; nutrition, substance abuse, mental health, and of course, sexual health. Jennings said that the campaign didn’t fully launch this year, and to expect more in the next semester.

The data comes from the American College Health Associations and their National College Health Assessment in which UNR has recently started to participate in.

“It’s the gold star for getting data”, said Jennings, “Many colleges across the country participate.”

Jennings said that the data is a little dated, but that UNR participated in the spring 2010 assessment and that information should be coming out in the next couple of weeks.

“It’ll be interesting to see where we fall and compare it to our 2007 data” said Jennings.

The question that is still remains as to why the rates are so high. Some believe the data might be skewed because of other colleges but Jennings assures people that UNR’s sexual activity was normal and at the same level as the national average. She did allude to the possibility that UNR students have poor safe sex practices or just plain unsafe sex.

“When looking at the survey, condom use is the thing you look at first” said Jennings, “Our STD rates were higher than the national group, and condom use was much lower.”

The print ad also provides the mind-blowing statistic that only 31% of UNR students used a condom the last time they had sex.

Jennings emphasized that getting tested is still the single most important thing that sexually active people should be doing. Getting tested is the only way to know for sure what you have or are at risk for having before the infection spreads to other parts of your body.

“There are no symptoms for Chlamydia or Gonorrhea, so you won’t know if you have it.” said Jennings.

Part of what “the N crowd” hopes to do more of within the next year is have more free testing events and encourage those who are unsure to get tested.

This is the data gathered from the National College Health Assessment.

Please take the time to answer these questions about your sex life: