AIDS Awareness proves disease is a real problem

     AIDS Awareness Week covered GCSU’s campus last week with red ribbons and colorful flags in an effort to bring the reality of AIDS into campus dialogue.
     GCSU organization A.N.G.E.L.S (AIDS Now Grasps Every Living Soul) led the multiple events on campus along with other GCSU groups, Pride Alliance and AAC (Art as an Agent for Change).
     All events aimed at expanding student awareness of the impact of AIDS in the surrounding community and neighborhoods. For Tameka Dean, student organizer of AIDS week and president of A.N.G.E.L.S, AIDS week meant to show GCSU students that the AIDS epidemic is not a problem limited to the homosexual community or Africa, but is evident right here in Middle Georgia.
     Middle Georgia’s own AIDS researcher, Dr. Harold Katner from Mercer University of Medicine, offered his insight on the current state of AIDS and HIV within Macon last Tuesday night.
Katner shared with the small crowd of GCSU students and faculty his personal contact with and treatments of AIDS patients in Macon. Katner sees about one new AIDS patient every three days from Middle Georgia alone, illustrating the impact of the AIDS epidemic locally.
     “I think his message was very powerful especially in his personal connections with patients,” Dean said. “He showed that (AIDS patients) are not always the typical drug addic or even homosexual, but also wives, mothers and children too.”
Other events revealed misconceptions about the AIDS pandemic, such as the discussion “Unmentionable” hosted by GCSU’s PRIDE Alliance last Wednesday night.
     About 15 GCSU students showed up for the event, which addressed the taboo topic of homosexuality in the black community and its relation to the issue of AIDS.
     Noelle Rose, president of the Pride Alliance, was pleased to see the diversity of opinions within the close-nit group conversation.
     “Even though I didn’t think we’d get 100 percent turnout there still was a lot of disagreement among the small group that showed up,” Rose said. “I think it went well (in) just starting a dialogue about race and sexuality.”
     Additional AIDS week events, such as Friday’s Silent Auction which benefited the A.N.G.E.L.S foundation in Macon, and the flag presentation on front campus, which represented major countries devastated by AIDS, all saw modest student participation.
     “I think our programs were better this year but we had less turnout than expected,” Dean said. “ I think it shows a shift in attitudes on campus that needs to be addressed.”
     With a lower than expected turnout in nearly all of the events, some are left wondering if the lack of student participation has to do with the negative social stigma associated with AIDS.
Many students may feel as if the subject of AIDS is just “too depressing” or “kinda uncomfortable” to deal with.
     “I think students detach themselves from (the issue of AIDS) by thinking that since its not me then why should I care?” Dean said. “I wanted to try and eliminate that attitude with (AIDS week).”
     Even amid a sense of some student apathy towards AIDS Week, the events on campus still made an impact on those GCSU students who attended.
     “By the end of it, most of the information pamphlets were gone, and I’m happy to see that kind of interest in students here at GCSU,” Rose said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 22 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry