Aleksandra Sidorova
The early period of the new school year from August to November is classified as “the Red Zone,” a time marked by a sudden increase in the number of sexual assault incidents, compared to the rest of the year. To educate freshmen on safe sex, a special event, “Sex with the CAs,” was held at Whiteface Lounge on the evening of Friday, Sept. 24.
The event started with a demonstration of proper condom use, immediately followed by a relay race consisting of two teams of four. The objective is to run from one end of the lounge to another, around the pillar, put on either jeans and a belt (for girls) or a bra (for boys), and to properly put a condom onto a dummy. After successfully putting on the condom, each member would take off the garment they put on right before, place it neatly on the table for the next racer, and return to the team to pass it on to the next person. The team that had all their members complete the course first won.
The other major activity was “Sex Kahoot,” featuring questions about anatomy, sex positions, sex toys, sexually transmitted diseases and consent. Sophie Crandall, winner of the game said, “We learned a lot. We had races to see who could be the fastest, but also the safest. It was really fun. I think it’s good to go to events like this.”
All guests were awarded raffle tickets for participation, to be drawn as the event concluded. The “cute little prizes,” as Crandall called them, were various sex toys and gift cards for Spencer’s.
One resident won a pink dildo for putting on a condom the quickest.
The community directors and community advocates, who organized the event, had similar experiences. They experienced some awkwardness, but enjoyed themselves nonetheless. They feel that overall, “Sex with the CAs” was a success.
Whiteface Community Advocate Jacob Walcott said, “Planning the event was really fun, not going to lie. It had its weird moments like googling condoms and dildos, and good questions to put in the Kahoot for it to be informational, but still make it fun.”
Sean Reasor, another CA at Whiteface, said that the main priority and challenge during the planning stage was funding, and making the event engaging for the freshmen attendees. Among the scrapped ideas was Twister.
He said, “‘You can’t have Twister and a sex thing — this is going to get out of hand,’ but we were just thinking of fun ways. No one wants a lecture. You all just had a week of that.”
Reasor also said he did not expect such a large number of people — roughly 30 — to attend the event.
“The expectation was mainly to get a majority of the freshmen from other buildings to come over and have fun learning about how to have safe protected sex,” Walcott said. “We were able to give out toys that people actually were excited about, so I’m really happy about that. I would hope that next time we had an event similar to this — next semester, next year — more people would come… but for the people that did come, I’m happy for them.”
