National Institute for Reproductive Health
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Back Up Your Birth Control Campus Challenge 2009

Back Up Your Birth Control is a national campaign coordinated by the National Institute for Reproductive Health to raise awareness of and expand access to emergency contraception (EC). Every year, leading national advocacy organizations, service providers, and other community stakeholders participate in activities such as grassroots organizing, provider and public education, and policy debates, which culminate in our Back Up Your Birth Control Day of Action.

The Campus Challenge, which aims to engage college students in spreading the word about EC on campuses across the country, is an important aspect of each year’s campaign. Students who enter the Campus Challenge must come up with an original, educational, and creative way to raise awareness of EC on their campus, implement their idea, and submit documentation of their events or activities to the BUYBC team for the chance to win a $500 prize.

The 2009 Campus Challenge attracted an unprecedented number of entries. With their exciting activities, the 10 total groups reached out to more than 4,000 students from colleges and universities around the U.S.

After careful consideration of each entry’s originality, educational value, and creativity, the BUYBC team is proud to announce that Ciara Conway and the members of VOX at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee are this year’s winners! They will be awarded a $500 prize for their efforts to raise awareness of EC on campus.

Our Campus Challenge winners held a Free EC Day using packs donated by Planned Parenthood. To stress that EC is a back-up method of birth control, they offered regular forms of contraception as well. The students of VOX also created an EC informational video, placed an educational newsletter in every women’s bathroom on campus and a Planned Parenthood EC card in every female student’s mailbox. To top it off they handed out over 200 cookies shaped like hourglasses to emphasize that EC should be taken as soon after unprotected sex as possible.

Thanks to all the participants who carried out impressive campaigns and did their part to raise awareness of EC on their campuses!

  • Students of VOX at SUNY Geneseo created cloth patches featuring the logo, “Back up your BC with EC,” informed fellow students about a nearby source of free EC, and offered original Plan B pocket guides, among other educational materials.
  • Students of VOX at SUNY Albany created posters that signaled the need to have EC on hand before an emergency occurs. They also filled dormitories with “Where to get EC” fliers, which listed contact information for sources of low-cost EC in Albany.
  • Students of VOX at the University of Rochester in New York created a live action board game that illustrated situations in which students would need EC.
  • Students of Emerson Peace and Social Justice at Emerson College in Massachusetts used different media to spread the word about EC, including radio shows at a local station, an in-class speech on EC, and an op-ed in the school newspaper.
  • Students at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges in New York created their own zine, "HEAT" that "puts pressure (heat) on society to bring issues of reproductive rights to the surface." They also collected signatures for the Reproductive Health Act for the State of New York.