OK, Bearcats, time for a pop quiz. If you have unprotected vaginal sex, are you at risk for HIV? How about if you have unprotected anal sex? How about if you’re just swapping saliva with someone infected with the virus … are you at risk then?

If any of you out there didn’t know the answer to these three questions, we have a bit of a problem here. Just in case, we’ll tell you: Both unprotected anal and vaginal sex put you at risk for the virus. However, you cannot contract it through saliva, so kiss whoever you want. (Well, let’s amend that statement: you can still get the Herps, but not HIV.)

Now, you may be asking yourself why we’ve decided to bring up the subject of HIV awareness. After all, we’ve all taken high school health classes and learned all about the risks of the disease, right?

But something startling has come to our attention. One of Binghamton University’s human development classes conducted a survey of 420 students on campus (see Page 1), asking a number of questions about AIDS awareness. And the results, quite literally, made our jaws drop.

Of the 420 people surveyed, 46 percent have had unprotected sex. All right, fine. Not a great stat, but we all make mistakes. But of those people, less than half have been tested for HIV. Maybe that’s because 33 percent of the people polled thought you could only contract HIV through anal sex. Or maybe we can attribute the lack of testing to the fact that 22 percent of those polled didn’t even know where to get tested.

Now, we don’t think we’re being alarmists when we say these results indicate a major problem. Every high school student in America should be receiving adequate sexual education to dispel these myths about AIDS and safe sex … so what does it say when college students on our campus don’t seem to be informed?

So what’s the solution? First off, check out all the AIDS awareness information in this issue (Pages 1 and 12). We also recommend you take advantage of the informational programs put on by student groups like REACH, and definitely pay a visit to Health Services, Planned Parenthood, the Broome County Health Department or the Southern Tier Aids Prevention Program to get tested and speak to a trained counselor.

Most of us consider ourselves adults — we have the freedom to make our own choices, both sexually and otherwise, and we owe it to ourselves to choose wisely. There is absolutely no excuse for any of us to be having unprotected sex … after all, those free condoms that Health Services and your resident assistant give out aren’t just meant to be filled with water and thrown at an unfortunate roommate.

So BU, we feel like we’re just stating the obvious, but apparently it needs to be repeated. Use a condom when you’re having a night of fun (whether with your monogamous partner or that cutie from chem lab you ran into Downtown), and get tested regularly, just to be on the safe side.

Just think of it this way: no one wants to be given a death sentence because they were too drunk to remember the condom and their partner was too busy studying for the MCATs to bother getting tested.