Georgetown’s Student Health Center can irrigate your ear, freeze your warts, or remove your ingrown toe nails. But when it comes to a more pressing concern for the student body—sexually transmitted diseases—the Center is sadly lacking.
While the University does offer STD and HIV testing, students have to pay insurance co-payments, which vary depending on the insurance provider, according to Health Center employees. Georgetown’s limited options for students who are concerned about their sexual health earned the University a “C” in the category of STD testing in Trojan Condom’s Sexual Health Survey last fall.
Maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that a Catholic university prefers imagining abstinent students over dealing with sexual realities. Still, I hoped that the Student Health Center’s distribution of the new HPV vaccine signaled a change of heart.
While walking to CVS or the H*yas for Choice table for condoms is a small inconvenience, getting a free STD test off-campus is inconvenient and time-consuming.
“The closest place I know to get free STD testing would probably be Planned Parenthood on 16th Street,” said Samantha Demetriou, a H*yas for Choice board member. “That’s kind of a drag.”
Demetriou thinks that STD testing should be free at the Student Health Center.
“It’s a college campus and it just makes sense,” she said. “It’s pretty much widely known that students at Georgetown are sexually active. You need to provide services to your students.”
Georgetown is so strapped for cash that a replacement GOCard costs $25, so providing free STD tests for students might not be first on the agenda. Still, there are compelling reasons for the University to spend some of itfunds to make sure students have access to sexual health resources.
Students are less likely to get tested for STDs if they have to pay for it. The University distributes free flu shots, another instance of preventive medicine, every winter. It’s hard to imagine many students getting the flu shot, though, if they had to pay for it instead.
Georgetown also spends money encouraging students to be healthy in ways that aren’t as effective as free testing would be. When was the last time you used be.georgetown.edu, the University’s health web site? It has smoothie recipes and articles promoting tap water, but most of the information is common sense. Money earmarked for student health services could be better spent on free tests than FAQs about homesickness, though the website’s budget is small.
Georgetown should reduce the chances of infection by providing free testing, because unlike high tuition and terrible meals at Leo’s, some sexually transmitted diseases last a lifetime.
