With love in the air as Valentine’s Day approaches, students are encouraged to take advantage of USC’s new sexually transmitted infection “Test Fest” — a university program providing STI testing services to all students at no cost from Feb. 3 to March 30.
The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) and Graduate Student Government (GSG) collaborated on the campaign to fund sexually transmitted infection testing for all USC students. STI testing at USC health centers is typically only free for students with USC’s health insurance.
“Seeing that a lot of students would be left in the dust, our wellness team and legislative branch really came together to allocate some funds towards getting this project through,” USG Chief Communications Officer Mustafa Ali Khan said.
Testing will be available to students at both the Engemann Student Health Center and Eric Cohen Student Health Center locations. Available tests include chlamydia urine testing, gonorrhea urine test or throat swabbing, syphilis blood testing and HIV blood testing. During this time students can participate in any of these tests with no out-of-pocket costs, and it won’t appear on the student’s outside insurance bill.
“Students will have ample time to take advantage of that initiative,” said Rachel Licthman, the associate director of public communications at USC Student Health. “Thanks to the generous subsidization of USG and GSG… they’re going to be more educated and informed about their different statuses depending on which test they choose to do”
Under the bill that was passed last semester, USG and the Graduate Student Government will provide a total of $15,000 to fund the testing.
“I think it’s important for testing to be readily available,” said Lucy Liao, a human biology major. “I feel like a lot of people are afraid to get tested, and I think one factor of it is definitely the financial aspect. I think that it’ll make people want to do it more and not be as afraid of doing it.”
Students can schedule an appointment through the MySHR portal and get a lab order sample collection at a USC Health Center. After submitting a blood or urine test, students will receive their results through the MySHR portal.
“Speaking from experience because testing wasn’t free before, I would never really go out and do it,” said computer science student Richard Duong. “So now being able to have it available and just making sure that I’m safe and the people that I’m with are safe, I think that’s pretty important. It’s really valuable.
In addition to “test fest,” a variety of events will continue throughout next week to celebrate USG’s wellness week.
USC’s annual wellness fair will take place Feb. 12 at Alumni Park from 12 to 3 p.m. The wellness fair will have different wellness resources that are available and tailored to help students’ physical, mental, spiritual and sexual health.
USG will also host another event at Alumni Park on Feb. 13 from 12 to 2 p.m. called “Be Well Love Well.” The event features two activities that are focused on helping students think about how they can better love themselves.
“I think this is really great. I really appreciate how it is open to everybody even if they don’t have the USC health package,” said health and human sciences student Natalie Olivares. “I think it’s a really good feature, especially during Valentine’s week. It’s a good time to have it, and it’s a good resource for students to have.”