Colorful posters, spinning wheels, T-shirts and buttons were brought together by a broader theme during the Sexual Health Sexpo Tuesday.
Various vendors ranging from the Counseling and Testing Center to Alternatives to Violence on the Palouse to the LGBTQA Office gave out simple advice to University of Idaho students — communicate.
This year marks the first time the university hosted the Sexpo. One of the main organizers was UI senior Anna Slusser.
“We had students plan it last year, but we didn’t implement it. I built on that,” she said.
Slusser said she thought it was important to have a sexual health event in the fall. Vandal Health Education does a lot of events in the spring and she wanted to expand on that, she said.
She said sexual health is an important topic for college students, yet it’s often glossed over.
“It’s a taboo kind of topic that people don’t want to discuss or think about, but it’s also really important,” Slusser said.
Julia Keleher, program coordinator for the UI LGBTQA Office, said she thinks there’s a lot of shame in our culture when it comes to sexual health.
“The biggest thing is that it’s important to protect yourself and not be afraid to talk about it,” she said.
Slusser said the Sexpo is great for helping students find the resources they need to stay protected.
Emily Tuschhoff, health education coordinator from Vandal Health Education, also attended. The Vandal Health Education table included several activities. There were STI Mad-Libs and a challenge to see how many golf balls students could fit into a condom.
Tuschhoff said one of the main goals of the Sexpo was to make everyone feel welcome.
“Another goal that we talked about was that students feel supported in their choices,” she said.
Tuschhoff said students don’t often think about healthy relationships in terms of sexual health.
“They might not realize the impact it’s having on their overall health if they’re in a negative relationship,” Tuschhoff said.
To combat this, Sharon Fritz, a psychologist from the Counseling and Testing Center, had a display at the Sexpo.
“I think, developmentally, college students are engaged in exploring their sexuality,” Fritz said.
She said it’s a big challenge for students to focus on school if they’re having relationship issues. Often this stress results from value conflicts, Fritz said.
“Engage in exploring what that means. It’s helpful to explore that anxiety,” she said.
Fritz said not exploring the issue causes more anxiety than coming in and talking it through.
Similarly, Tuschhoff said students shouldn’t just ignore their issues and hope they go away.
Slusser said the biggest challenge of organizing the Sexpo was trying to get a good turn out from students.
“Everybody has class and jobs or work and friends. It’s hard to motivate college students to go to extracurricular events that won’t help their resumes,” she said.
She said events like this are a big step toward making sexual health less taboo and letting students access their resources.
Carly Scott can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Idaho_Scotty.