Grade point averages may be taboo on Brown's campus, but this year the University has a 3.31 according to a decidedly non-academic source - the makers of Trojan condoms.
Brown ranks 17th out of 139 U.S. colleges and universities in the third annual Trojan Sexual Health Report Card, which surveys resources and services available to students. The University moved up 22 places from 2007, when it was ranked 39th.
With a 3.50 GPA as calculated by the report card, Stanford University claimed the top spot in the rankings after placing 41st last year, though the school was ranked number four in 2006. Among Ivy League schools, Columbia and Cornell beat Brown to rank second and third in the survey, respectively.
"Ivy Leaguers love to be on top, and we're not talking just academics," Trojan said on its Web site.
According to a Trojan press release, many students surveyed across the country said their health centers had improved over the past year, but a third of students said "they would not contact their health centers with questions about sexual health."
Laurel Foglia '08.5, who was an M-Sex facilitator in the fall of 2007, said the University "can always do more" to provide sexual education and resources to students. For example, while Foglia said it is "pretty easy to make an appointment and go" for tests for sexually transmitted infections on campus, she added that Health Services could do more to advertise its programs.
Foglia also said vending machines that sell condoms, like the one in the gender-neutral bathroom in Faunce, should be installed in residence halls.
According to the Trojan Web site, the "addition of an electronic student opinion poll which allowed students to grade their schools" this year "resulted in a significant rankings shake up." The survey, which also considered STD and HIV testing services, condom and contraception availability and sexual assault programs in determining the rankings, was conducted by Sperling's BestPlaces, an independent research firm.
The ranking initiative is part of Trojan's Evolve Campaign, which asserts that "there's a sexual health crisis happening right here in America" and aims to reverse high rates of STD infection and unplanned pregnancy in the U.S.
