Our View: Healthy Relationship Week just in time for Valentine’s Day

The name seems pretty self-explanatory. Healthy Relationship and Sexual Responsibility Week doesn’t need much clarification.

The reasoning for it is also clear. The years of college are prime for both hooking up and breaking up. Research has shown that 59 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds have gone through a recent breakup.

But the impact goes far beyond preventing having to push yet another pint of ice cream toward your heartbroken roommate. The communication and behavior patterns young adults establish during their college years will carry on into marriages and parent-child relationships. In fact, for many USU students with spouses and families, those “later years” are now.

Divorce rates continue to rise, costing our society billions of dollars and millions of broken homes each year. Domestic violence is anything but eradicated, with violent acts of sexual and physical abuse occurring daily. With all the seeming difficulty of keeping any relationship alive, one wonders if as a society we’ve just plain forgotten how to get along.

Well, apparently USU is trying to remind us, or maybe even teach us for the first time, what should and should nots acceptabale between two people who say they care about each other.

From a Dating 101 panel on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. in the TSC Ballroom, to links from Utah State Today’s Web site about artificial intimacy and online dating, many resources are available to students who may be seeking to find a relationship, are confused about their current relationship or those who just want to improve the one they are already in.

We applaud the university for recognizing that as great as life with a degree they have provided us will be, it won’t mean much if all the relationships around us have failed.

Oh, and Happy Valentine’s Day.