It's Sunday morning and all along the streets of Charlottesville, from Rugby Road to 14th Street to McCormick, college students are slowly making their way home on the long walk of shame (otherwise known as the "stride of pride").
A girl in a wrinkled black shirt tries to remember the name of the fraternity brother she hooked up with last night. A boy, whose collar has ceased to stand straight up and now hangs limply around his neck, wonders if he can still make brunch at O-Hill or Newcomb.
Neither of these students realize that even though they may not have had sex last night, they both may have contracted any number of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
The University is a school steeped in tradition -- dressy clothes, legacy students, the Good Ole Song --and it is very proud of these traditions. But slowly, over time, a new ritual may have taken root in connection to the party scene on and off Grounds.
This is one aspect of college parties that nobody likes to talk about or acknowledge: The accepted protocol of students meeting, perhaps exchanging first names and having unprotected oral sex.
But what many students may not realize is that these random hookups can be dangerous even if actual intercourse is not involved.
Most young adults are not aware of just how dangerous oral sex can be, and they don't realize that protection is available and imperative for not just intercourse but for oral sex as well.
Of a sample survey of 24 Lambeth residents, 10 had engaged in oral sex with someone they were not in a monogamous relationship with and of those 10, only two had used a condom.
College students can't really be blamed for not knowing the dangers of oral sex. The University, for example, offers multiple informational resources that encourage and instruct students to use condoms, and to use them correctly, during sex. But what information is distributed about oral sex?
Alison Beaver, assistant director of health promotions for Student Health, pointed to the Peer Health Educators, who are 45 U.Va. students trained to speak to their fellow students about sex and answer any questions their peers might have in a non-judgmental way.
According to Beaver, The Peer Health Educators also put on "30 'Sex Fest' presentations each semester at residence halls, sororities and fraternities." The Peer Health Educators talk about STDs, condoms and safer sex in general.
There is also the opportunity to schedule a Patient Education Session, which Beaver said allows "any student to ask any question one-on-one with a Peer Health Educator."
These efforts are laudable, but the problem is that many students don't know enough to even ask the right questions.
When the 24 students surveyed were given a list of five STDs and asked which of them could be transmitted through oral sex, only half of them correctly circled all of them.
When a person is receiving oral sex, he or she has the potential for contracting herpes. If the person giving oral sex has cold sores in or around the mouth, he or she can transmit it to the person receiving oral sex.
There is also a chance for contracting syphilis and hepatitis B from receiving oral sex, though the risks are much smaller. If a person is giving oral sex, he or she can contract any number of STDs including HIV, gonorrhea, herpes, hepatitis B and clamydia.
"At least most STDs can be transmitted by oral sex," said Christine Peterson, director of gynecology at the Student Health Center.
Peterson said she frequently sees cases of female students who have contracted genital herpes from someone with oral herpes.
Peterson added that 20 percent of sexually active college women will contract Human Papillomavirus -- which can result in genital warts and contribute to cervical cancer -- within a year of first having sex in college.
What can be more troubling is the fact that, according to Peterson, most people who have STDs are not aware that they are infected.
However, protection is available. For fellatio, one can just use a regular latex (scented or unscented) condom. For cunnilingus, one can use either pre-made dental dams (which are difficult to find and usually cost more than regular condoms) or make one by cutting the tip off a condom and cutting along the side to make a square.
With proper education about the dangers of oral sex, students can make sure their only regret from Saturday night is realizing, on Monday, that the other person sits next to them in Spanish.
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