A new sexual health minor is being offered by the School of Public Health to satisfy graduate and doctoral student demand for further education in the topic.

“We appear to be the first school of public health in the nation to offer such certification. Given the U of M School of Public Health is consistently ranked in the top ten nationally, and given our strong curricula addressing sexual and reproductive health, the U of M was a logical place to pioneer such a minor,” says Professor Simon Rosser, who will direct the minor. “Sexual health is a critical component of public health.”

The new minor will allow graduate students to learn and apply public health strategies to address a broad array of sexual health challenges and to build community sexual health.

Rosser said he developed the minor after realizing there is strong student interest in the topic.

“There’s a lack of similar opportunities across the nation and we want to attract the best students,” Rosser told the Minnesota Daily.

The core course in the minor, “Sex, Sexuality, and Sexual Health,” is comprehensive, covering everything from HIV, sexually transmitted infections, clergy sexual abuse, rape and sexual assault, and how to design, measure, and test effective interventions.

The minor also aims to challenge students to learn how to build resilient communities by addressing sexual health across a variety of populations and communities, including women’s health, reproductive health, LGBT health, and sexuality in disability and illness.

Overall, the minor requires eight credits for master’s students and 12 for doctoral students.

For more than 50 years, the University has been a national leader in sex-related research, and is nationally known for its sex education of medical and nursing students, innovative outreach programs to students, and has programs in women’s studies and an undergraduate minor in LGBT studies.