Students learned how to apply condoms correctly at the Rubber Lovers open session, and they all received a safe sex packet punch card.

Students can take the punch cards to the Health Education Resource Center or to the Health Services Building to receive a free safe sex packet, and they can get one once a month for twelve months. These packets contain 14 male condoms and one or two receptive condoms.

Health promotion coordinator Ashton Beaver conducted the open session at 5:30 p.m. in the Loft of the Martin Luther King Jr. Union.

She said there are a total of 18 steps to correctly put a male condom on, and the first one is asking for consent.

“Consent means a verbal ‘yes.’ (Nothing) vague or anything like that,” she said. “Even if (a partner) said ‘yes’ earlier and they decided ‘no’ now, that’s a no.”

Beaver also said if someone is unable to give a verbal ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to have sex, because they are intoxicated for example, then they are incapable of giving consent.

Ke-Ara Cherry, a sophomore computer technology information major, said consent is one of the most important aspects of healthy sexual intercourse because it requires the two partners to be on-board and understanding of each other’s needs.

“(Sex) has to be mutual,” she said. “You have to ask each other.”

Quinten Abrams, a sophomore construction management and health administration major, said he was surprised when he discovered there are 18 steps to correctly put on a male condom.

“I thought there were only three to four steps,” he said. “I thought it was just a quick little thing.”

There are also female condoms, also known as receptive condoms, that prevent sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy in the same way male condoms do, Beaver said.

“(A receptive condom) is just giving the woman a chance to know that she has protection for herself,” she said. “If a man, or another partner, says, ‘Oh, I did not bring another condom,’ the woman has a chance to say, ‘Well, I have one.’”

Junior psychology major Tanzania Henderson said she would recommend students to attend the next Rubber Lovers open session because what people learn about are subjects many people do not like talking about.

“People say, ‘Sex is bad.’ … It’s really not,” she said. “It’s something natural.”

She also said a lot of people think they know everything about healthy, safe sex, but they likely do not.

Cherry said everyone learns something new at Rubber Lovers, and that is why she and other attendees will invite their friends to come to the next session.

“(Rubber Lovers) is interesting,” she said. “(Safe sex) is something that we need to talk about because people don’t want to talk about it.”

For students who would like to learn more about using condoms to prevent pregnancy and contracting STIs, the next Rubber Lovers open sessions will be Oct. 16, Oct. 30 and Nov. 13 at 5:30 p.m. in the Martinsville Room at the Union.

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at lrraschke@eiu.edu.