On Thursday, Feb. 24, the main-floor lounge of the OSU-Cascades dormitory, otherwise known as The Residence Hall, was host to Sex in the Dark. No, not the sex in the dark you might be thinking of.

It was an event that brought in Planned Parenthood officials and Deschutes County Health Services professionals to answer sexual health-related questions from students, start a dialogue on the importance of sexual wellness and bring awareness to the resources at students’ disposal.

“In terms of what my hopes were, was to just begin a conversation about sexual health and wellness on campus, and to hopefully raise some awareness on what safe practices are and what resources are available,” Sara Holtzman, OSU-Cascades wellness coordinator and a key organizer of the event, said.

The lounge was arranged with couches and chairs around a fireplace and a table where Planned Parenthood and Deschutes County Health Services professionals sat behind a white sheet, “In true Wizard of Oz style,” according to Holtzman.

Slips of paper with markers were passed around to students so they could write their questions down anonymously, before placing them in a jack-o-lantern bucket for the experts. A table was set up with free condoms, Planned Parenthood buttons, chocolates and supplies to make virgin sex on the beach drinks.

The event went off without a hitch, besides for the fact that no one could figure out how to turn off the lights. So, it was rather the Sex in the Light event, according to Samara ​​Shinholster, Hall Council president of The Residence Hall.

The event brought to light a topic that might be uncomfortable to talk about for some people and did so in a fun, inviting way that allowed students to open up and learn about sexual related topics.

“Sexual health and sex is a very stigmatized thing in society, especially for women, but they made it very welcoming and all the experts were actually women, which was nice to see,” Shinholster said. “They were answering every question we had, even if they were silly questions.”

Silly questions are to be expected at events like this. What’s not to be expected is for the experts to take every one of them seriously. What might seem silly to a room full of students might be a legitimate, pressing question to one of the attendees, and the experts gave every question that same kind of respect.

Some of the questions asked were things like, can you actually drown in the pussy? What is muffing? What if a man takes Plan B? But also questions such as, what causes men to dry fire, in terms of ejaculation? Do condoms expire? What do I do if someone does something I am uncomfortable with?

This won’t be the last event like this coming to the OSU-Cascades campus either. Holtzman and John Atkinson, OSU-Cascades residential education coordinator, are planning more events that will touch on other topics that are stigmatized or taboo.

“We focus on one topic at a time, but we have to make sure to hit all the topics, like mental health, physical health, spiritual health and emotional health, because the reality of a lot of students is that they are going to have some kind of an impact in their college life in all of those areas,” Atkinson said.

The two of them are planning to have training on how to recognize signs of depression and suicidal thoughts, a destress techniques campaign, the importance of sleep campaign, more sexual and reproductive health events and a skills-based series where they focus on small, essential skills like filing taxes or changing a tire.

If you go to school or live on campus at OSU-Cascades, be on the lookout for more great things to come out of this group of educators and students. “The work is never done, and it can’t be because we all have stuff to do,” Holtzman said.