RHA increasing its campus visibility in response to this survey is a positive thing because it provides services that students need. It’s disheartening many students are not aware of RHA and the services it provides.

Continuing to interact with students and their needs, such as this health and safety survey, only will make the RHA more visible to students and hopefully result in more students utilizing its services to stay healthy mentally, physically and sexually.

One specific service that RHA offers to students is condoms through their Condom Connection program. The service is supposed to promote safe sex among students, but might not be doing its job if students think dorms do not have enough available condoms.

On the RHA’s survey, the lack of available condoms in residence halls, along with the quality of those condoms, topped the list of student complaints.

The system currently in place for students to get condoms from resident mentors makes for an extremely awkward interaction for all involved. Many mentors have condoms on their desks, which requires residents to either knock on doors to ask for one or walk into the room to grab one.

RHA representatives suggested placing boxes with condoms outside of mentor’s doors in the future, so condoms would be readily available for students to pick up.

These boxes would virtually eliminate any discomfort that comes with asking a mentor for one.

While it might be weird for a box of condoms to be sitting in dorm hallways, especially when parents come to visit, it would be a sensible solution to students’ problems.

The box would be convenient for students, especially those who don’t want to trek across campus to a convenience store to purchase condoms. Giving students the option between walking a long distance to get condoms or walking down their hallway to pick one up out of a box increases the likelihood they will choose to practice safe sex.

Other representatives suggested passing out condoms to every dorm room at the beginning of each semester. Although everybody might not need to use the condoms provided, it would be better to have them available than not to use one if a situation might arise.

It is encouraging that students are concerned about using condoms, especially in college, where they might begin having more sexual encounters. RHA is addressing these concerns, and should continue to distribute surveys to address student’s recommendations.

Ultimately, though, RHA wouldn’t have known what services to prioritize without student input. By conducting this survey and focusing on the needs of students, RHA ultimately is making its organization more worthwhile while also positively contributing to student health.