AIDS On Campus

            As you may know from our background information on our introductory blog, we are all students from the University of Colorado-Boulder.  In walking the campus this week I found an unusual formation of flags and signs dispersed across one of the quads. I discovered that the demonstration was being put on by BCAP and spreading awareness of HIV/AIDS on campus. As a student at CU I have come to be almost oblivious to most demonstrations, but this one seemed to stick out to me. Not only was there a large number of flags put in place around the grass, but also large pieces of quilts that had pictures and writing on them. In talking to some of the staff under the BCAP tent I found out that this event was to spread awareness of HIV/AIDS using the national NAMES quilt and statistics of those people that have passed away from AIDS.

 Man observing one of the pieces of the NAMES AIDS Quilt on Norlin Quad on the CU-Boulder campus. The sections of quilt are made in memory of someone that died of AIDS. The NAMES Memorial Quilt (http://www.aidsquilt.org/)

One of the informational signs found around the quad, in place to get passerby attention.

In order to spread the word around campus to students and faculty passing by there was also the use of signs with facts about AIDS and statistics meant to get passerby attention. These signs were put in place to not only state facts to some misconceptions about AIDS, but also to put in perspective just how costly AIDS can be and how many unfortunate people there are in our society that need help. One sign talked about how AIDS is spread not only through sexual contact and blood, but also through breast feeding. These sorts of messages hopefully can get students to become more aware of AIDS and hopefully take precautionary steps to avoid the further spread of this disease.

Table set up to hand out information and condoms to students in order to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS.

BCAP was also handing out condoms as a way to further spread awareness. I think it is a great idea to use a variety of tactics to help in educating the college population about the prevention of AIDS. BCAP and the people that put on this demonstration used different stimuli to help showcase the fact that AIDS is not just a disease affecting people over in Africa and 3^rd world countries, it is clearly evident in our society and there needs to be the spreading of awareness to those around us. I hope that this demonstration and BCAP’s presence on campus can have positive effects on the students’ population and continue to raise awareness to not only college students, but society as a whole. If the college and young adult community can continue to be educated on AIDS and contrubute to the prevention, we as a society can hopefully wipe the catastrophic AIDS virus out.

Over 400 Flags symbolizing those infected and those who have died from AIDS.

By Zach Kincaid

The NAMES Quilt is a nationally recognized quilt that remembers those who have died from AIDS. It was started back in 1987. “The AIDS Memorial Quilt is a poignant memorial, a powerful tool for use in preventing new HIV infections, and the largest ongoing community arts project in the world”, is listed on the NAMES Quilt website. In doing some research on the quilt and reading this quote I find it very interesting that BCAP and the campus would take part in using the quilt to spread awareness. I, like many other students am a visual learner and using this quilt and showing those that have fallen to AIDS provides strong evidence to showcase just how much of a presence AIDS still has in our society.