Over the next two weeks, the office of the Student Association’s vice president of student success will be running a sex campaign focused on sexual wellness education.
Throughout the campaign, the office, headed by Luca Cassidy, a senior double-majoring in economics and sociology, will disseminate sexual well-being awareness and information through social media and in-person activities. It plans to distribute relevant information, from menstrual care dispensers on campus to various resources that students can utilize like the Decker Student Health Services Center and University Counseling Center.
The campaign is a collaborative effort between on-campus offices, like B-Healthy and the Q Center, and student organizations, including the Feminist Collective, Planned Parenthood Generation Binghamton and Domestic & Oppressive Violence Education. At the end of the campaign, the office will raffle off various sex toys donated by Adam and Eve, one of the oldest companies in the adult industry.
“Through this initiative, we hope to help students by bringing [sexual health] resources directly to them while simultaneously increasing sex positivity on campus,” wrote Abigail Connors, the VPSS’ director of policy and a junior majoring in philosophy, politics and law.
The campaign is the latest in the VPSS office’s sex positivity efforts. Last May, the office collaborated with several others to unveil a Plan B vending machine in the basement of Glenn G. Bartle Library. It dispenses levonorgestrel, the generic form of Plan B and an emergency contraceptive, for $10. The goal was to provide a safe, inexpensive and convenient method to obtain Plan B, because it can cost between $30 to $60 to purchase off-campus.
Following the installment of the Plan B vending machine, one of many sexual health resources available for students, the VPSS office established this sexual wellness campaign designed to inform students about the resources they may be unfamiliar with. The campaign partners with on-campus sexual health resources like the Violence, Abuse, and Rape Crisis Center and Title IX peer advisors.
In the second part of the campaign, the office will table on the Spine with other campus organizations on Friday, Sept. 6 between noon and 4 p.m. Planned events include a sex toy raffle and a dildo ring toss to fundraise for Family Planning — a group that works to provide information and health care for sexual wellness and reproductive health in South Central New York. Family Planning provides sexual health services like exams, birth control and STD treatment as well as transportation assistance.
“We really wanted to support an organization whose mission is both to provide everyone with the information they need to make informed decisions for themselves, as well as to provide health care services to everyone in need of them,” Connors wrote.
The campaign was organized by the VPSS staff and various other student organizations, including the Feminist Collective, an intersectional, anti-capitalist student organization dedicated to supporting the rights of marginalized groups and discussing issues related to feminism.
“With the beginning of the new school year, it’s a great idea that the VPSS introduced the Sex Campaign,” the Feminist Collective wrote in a statement to Pipe Dream. “It’s a great time to introduce or reintroduce students to the variety of resources and spaces for them. The Feminist Collective has historically been a sex-positive space on campus providing accessibility in resources and community, so we are excited about the opportunity to be a part of the campaign.”