Valentine’s Day is the kick-off day for the 22nd annual National Condom Week, established to promote safe sex among college students.The week was first observed in 1978 at University of California-Berkeley as a way to promote sexual health, said Sharon Miller, HIV-AIDS education coordinator for the Central Iowa Chapter of the American Red Cross.The week is now observed by activists on and off college campuses as an opportunity to educate and encourage people to adopt behaviors that prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections like HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, she said.If health educators are doing their jobs, “we don’t need a ‘Disease-of-the-month’ or special week devoted to what we do as a part of our regular job,” said Brian Dunn, health promotion coordinator for the ISU Student Health Center.Dunn coordinates the work of five trained students who work as campus health advocates to educate their peers about health issues as part of the ISU Student Health Center. The center would like to provide as many as 15 advocates per week, he said.Advocates are currently focused on prevention workshops, but they also will be focusing on campus policies that promote and support sexually transmitted infection prevention behaviors. These behaviors include prevention messages and condom ads in student-read publications and condom machines for dormitories, said Brooke Johnson, a campus health advocate. “Condoms should be available to everyone, easily,” said Johnson, senior in dietetics. Chandra Linley, a campus health advocate, has worked with the Student Health Center on presentations about sexually transmitted infections. “They have lots of good questions,” said Linley, senior in community health education. “We just want to get the information out. We want people to know that [HIV is] still out there and to know how to protect themselves. We want to get rid of the myth that it can be caught through kissing or casual contact. It’s spread through sexual contact and direct blood contact with someone who is infected.”ISU students have mixed ideas about condom distribution.Leah Hobart, freshman in early childhood education, said condoms should not be distributed on campus because distribution gives the wrong message and encourages pre-marital sex. However, “it would also encourage those who are currently having pre-marital sex to have safe sex,” she said. Hobart said if a man and woman have decided to have sex, they should “carry protection with them.”Some students said distributing condoms will increase sexual activity among ISU students.”It’s like putting pop machines in the dorms — people will drink more pop,” said Abby Thompson, sophomore in marketing. “So, maybe if there were condom machines, people would have more sex.” Other students said if students are going to have sex, they might as well be protected.”Some people would do it anyway, without a condom,” said Aaron Shady, junior in chemical engineering. Shady said the premium some people place on sex is too high.”How much fun can you have if your whole goal of the evening is search and destroy?” he said.Stephen Patel, senior in mechanical engineering, said increased availability of condoms and other contraception encourages sex.”They make it easier for you to have sex without worrying about having kids,” he said.Other ISU students said condom distribution has no impact on students’ decisions to engage in sexual activity.”Condoms don’t actually encourage sex,” said Mathias Gran, sophomore in music. “Obviously, some kids aren’t going to have sex if condoms aren’t there, but there’s just that little bit of extra encouragement.” Gran said condom machines in dorms are “a good idea because there are times when it could be a situation where people are going to have sex no matter what but, due to unavailability, will have unprotected sex.”