NIU students’ sexual activity has not significantly changed in recent years, but students may be having safer sex, according to survey results.

According to NIU-administered surveys, 80 percent of NIU students consider themselves sexually active, defined as having had some sexual contact within the past year.

This percentage has remained relatively consistent for the past 20 years, varying by only one or two percent annually, NIU Health Educator Steve Lux said.

Developed in 1988, the Health Enhancement Services’ survey is annually taken by 800 to 1,200 students in general education classes. The same survey has been used as a model for college health assessments nationally.

The change in student sexual behavior reflects an upward trend in condom use, Lux said. Providing free condoms at Health Services has helped increase condom use.

DeKalb County reported 297 cases of STDs in 2000 compared to 422 cases in 1990, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health Web site.

NIU surveys have also shown student condom use has increased from 30 to 60 percent over the past 20 years.

“If a student wanted to get a condom from the health center in the ’80s, he had to walk up to the front desk and ask for one, and then go to the pharmacist and pay 50 cents,” Lux said.

In the 1980s, NIU dispensed about 300 condoms a year, Lux said. These days, Health Enhancement is handing out about 150,000 condoms a year.

NIU student groups interested in promoting safer sex may request condoms from Health Enhancement.

In the past three years, however, STDs have been on the rise, said Carol Sibley, a registered nurse specializing in preventative medicine at Health Services.

There were 162 cases of the STDs chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. In 2003 there were 175, and in 2004 there were 214 cases reported at Health Services.

“No matter how many times you tell them, I don’t know that people understand that the birth control pill doesn’t prevent STDs,” Sibley said.

Community Health Educator Nancy Bogle of the DeKalb County Health Center provides sex education to middle school students.

The program promotes abstinence and discusses the consequences of sexual activity in an age-appropriate fashion, Bogle said.

“There’s been a huge difference in the students’ knowledge and understanding of their bodies,” Bogle said. “We try to encourage the kids to talk to their parents about what they learn.”