Condoms and barriers can be found at CVS located at 1634 Neil Ave. Credit: Brooke Tacsar | Lantern Reporter
Although “Sex Week” has condoms at the ready this Valentine’s Day, one service at the Student Wellness Center has been keeping students prepared since 1997.
The Condom Club, a service in the RPAC, allows students to purchase a variety of condoms and barriers year-round, Arianna Camel, the associate director of the Student Wellness Center, said. Around 1,000 students use the resource every academic year, making it one of the center’s most popular services.
“We definitely have students coming in every single day,” Camel said. “It’s a regular thing, and I’m just really happy that students feel comfortable enough to come in and have conversations or just come in and grab what they need and head out.”
After completing a five-question quiz and paying $5 for 25 purchasing points, students can buy oral dams, lubricant and condoms using points, with the club offering a wide selection to choose from, according to the Student Wellness Center’s Condom & Barrier menu.
The primary barrier methods bought by students are non-latex and latex condoms, dental dams, internal condoms for women and finger cots, Camel said. Students that pay $5 can buy up to 25 barriers a day depending on their point values and receive two free packets of flavored water-based or unflavored silicone-based lubricant.
“They’re able to request condoms on the spot, or once they are in the club, they can come in and use a grab bag, which has an array of regular latex condoms,” Camel said.
Students who choose to use their points on a grab bag can get four of each barrier or condom that would otherwise cost one point each, Camel said.
“It is educational,” Camel said. “We do want students to be able to understand the basics of having a healthy relationship, one with [their] own body and with whatever partners [they] have.”
Although the Condom Club offers various condoms and barriers, the Student Wellness Center prioritizes it as an educational experience to offer students the opportunity to receive additional information about sex education, including demonstrations on condom and barrier usage, Camel said.
“When students come in, they do have the opportunity to ask professional and student staff questions about whatever they may have questions about and if we don’t have the answers, which we typically do, we’re able to refer them out to the necessary areas,” Camel said.
Beyond the Condom Club, Camel said the Student Wellness Center continues to provide students with its own sexual health and educational services.
“[Students] are able to opt into different programs and workshops that we have as well to learn a little bit more about how to have a healthy relationship with [themselves], with [their] body, with others and how to also communicate [their] needs,” Camel said. “We’ll be coming out with a newsletter here at the end of the spring semester that students can regularly opt into, so they’re able to have something to navigate on their own.”
Camel said the Student Wellness Center and the Condom Club also partner with Ohio State’s Student Advocates for Sexual Health Awareness, or SASHA, for “Sex Week” — a seven-day series of educational events, activities and programs centered on sexual health. This year’s Sex Week started Sunday and will end Saturday.
“Our role in that is to be able to provide barrier methods for some of the programs they’re doing,” Camel said.
Sydney Heckeler, a third-year and secretary of SASHA, said the organization is grateful for the Student Wellness Center’s participation in “Sex Week” and its support of the Condom Club.
“The fact that it’s even called the Condom Club gets that immediate name recognition [and] that immediate head turn, which I think is great because it’s hard to get people talking about sexual health and how to be sexually safe without being embarrassed,” Heckeler said.
Both Heckeler and Camel agreed the Condom Club is an important sex education and awareness tool for students, especially those who lacked such in high school.
“It’s not something that has regularly been in their lives, especially since [high school] education for most students, if they’re from Ohio, would not have provided them with all the necessary items about learning how to have safer sex,” Camel said.
