Spring is in the air. Birds are chirping, trees are in bloom, and people are beginning to shed their winter coats and look forward to swimsuit weather.

With the emergence of spring comes that yearning to form new relationships. Reenergized from spring break, college students head back to class, well-rested and ready to finish the school year and move on to summer. Thoughts turn to daydreams of hanging out at the river, drinking beers on a patio at a bar in midtown or having some plain, old-fashioned sex.

College is the time when young people everywhere have license to imbibe alcoholic beverages and engage in promiscuous sexual activity before settling down to a job, family and responsibilities.

It’s also a time when some young people make some dumb decisions.

In a recent survey conducted by Qpid.me, a website that allows members to post their STD test results and share them with others, 49 percent of men and 38 percent of women reported having sex as a direct result of drinking, and 75 percent of all students reported never or rarely using a condom.

Also according to the survey, about 48 percent of men and women who had sex under the influence regretted the experience.

Young people who are out on their own for the first time, making their
own decisions are societally expected to experiment with alcohol and sex. No one tells these excitable young people that overindulgence can result in some heavy consequences.

Drinking often leads to lower inhibitions, which can lead to drunken sex with a strange member of the opposing gender. Safe sex, or a quick conversation about sexually transmitted diseases, is the last thing that comes to mind.

In all honesty, most people don’t know how to handle it. The average sexually active young person in the United States has little to no education about sex, birth control or STDs.

According to a study by the Guttmacher Institute published in February 2012, about 46 percent of males and 33 percent of females in their teens did not receive formal instruction about contraception before they had sex for the first time, and 41 percent of teenagers ages 18-19 say they know little or nothing about condoms and 75 percent say they know little or nothing about the contraceptive pill.

Unacceptable.

Lack of education makes sex an uncomfortable and dangerous subject. How can people make informed decisions if they haven’t received all the information.

Websites like Qpid.me and SmarterSex.org have dedicated themselves to educating college students on making safer sexual decisions, especially before the heat of the moment takes over.

Qpid.me is a downloadable application that allows a person to access their own personal medical records, specifically STD records, from their smartphone.

This free membership website promotes conversation about STDs between sexual partners can be less awkward by the ability to show someone their medical history on their phone. That may or may

not be the case—conversations about STDs are usually pretty sensitive—but an application like Qpid.me may help break the ice and start facilitating the conversation.

A quick visit to SmarterSex.org can help the budding sexual co-ed make safer decisions overall. The site offers tips on how to get the conversation started between sexual partners, information

on STDs and contraception, and general guides on how to make sex as safe as possible for the individual.

College campuses also join the force for sexual health education. Here on City College campus, there are two registered nurses available to answer any health questions students have. Plus, Planned

Parenthood comes to campus every Tues- day and provides pregnancy testing, STD and HIV testing and birth control for City College students.

So as the spring warmth turns into summer heat—or other types of heat—take advantage of the educational resources available, while exercising the right to be a promiscuous post-adolescent. Have the conversation with sexual partners now, so there doesn’t have to be a terrible conversation with a sexual partner later.