Harvard Slides Down Sex Rankings

Harvard students may be surprised to hear that their school, one of the best universities in the world, is averaging a cumulative GPA of 2.68.

The University was given the poor mark for its overall “sexual health” last week in the fourth-annual Trojan Sexual Health Report Card, which ranked Harvard number 62 out of 141 American colleges and universities—a drastic decline from the University’s 25th-place ranking last year or its top 10 showing the year before.

The report—based on the premise that more information about sexual health will allow students to make better informed decisions about sex—does not reflect sexual activity or STD prevalence, but rather focuses on the resources available to students about sexual health.

But exactly what caused the precipitous drop remains unclear, and Sarah Rankin, director of the Office for Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (OSAPR), said she was at a loss to explain Harvard’s slide in the ranking.

“Nothing has changed over my four years here that I am aware of on campus, but our grades have been all over the place. I don’t know what information they base it on because no one has been contacted from my office,” Rankin said.

“If anything, we are more visible, which does not compute with the fact our score has gone down,” she added, noting that personnel are on call 24 hours a day for sexual assault during the academic year and that peer education programming is available.

Madeleine E. Ballard ’11, who is involved in student health issues on campus, said she couldn’t explain Harvard’s slip in the report, either.

“I think Harvard does a pretty good job at informing students about sexual health,” Ballard said. “A number of good resources are available like peer health counselors [and] obviously [University Health Services].”

Bert T. Sperling, the president of Sperling’s BestPlaces—the research firm Trojan contracted to conduct the survey—said the survey’s results were not “earth-shattering.”

“After doing this for four years, I am not surprised with the findings,” he added.

Trojan commissioned the survey—which collected data in 13 categories, ranging from student opinion about the campus health center to condom and contraceptive cost—“to initiate dialogue and provide a benchmark for student health center across the country,” according to Sperling.

Since the first Trojan Sexual Health Report Card was issued in 2006, Harvard’s performance has been wildly inconsistent. In 2007 it ranked as the 10th most sexually healthy school, while in 2006 it earned the 43rd spot.

Excluding Harvard, other Ivy League schools ranked as some of the most sexually healthy colleges and universities in this year’s report card. Brown, Cornell, and Columbia Universities placed in the top 10, and Yale ranked 15th.