Kastyn Matheny | STUDENT LIFE

Washington University in St. Louis observed World AIDS Day on Friday to encourage students to take a moment to think about the disease as both a global issue and one that has effects in the local and campus communities.

The lights of Edison Theatre glowed the same color as the ribbons adorning students’ shirts as campus took time to observe World AIDS Day last Friday.

Several student groups collaborated to put on events throughout the day to raise awareness about the worldwide epidemic of AIDS and to honor its millions of victims for their daily struggles.

Co-organizer and junior Grant Schalet said the day was a success in getting students to think about the issue of AIDS not only as a problem in the gay community and various countries in Africa but as a global issue that has an impact both internationally and on campus.

“We’re simply trying to get people to take a moment and reflect,” Schalet said. “We wanted this to be broadly applied…we wanted people to be aware of the fact that [AIDS] doesn’t simply apply to those groups and it could happen to anybody.”

Schalet, a member of GlobeMed, worked with students in the Social Justice Center, Global Brigades, Timmy Global Health, FACE AIDS and the pre-medical society to organize numerous events throughout the day.

In what they called “guerrilla marketing,” organizers of Washington University’s annual observation of World AIDS day interrupted large lecture classes on Friday and applied the statistics of AIDS transmission in a particular country in proportion to the number of seats in the classroom. Those students who sat in a seat that had a red bag on it represented those infected with the disease.

“Walking in, it was definitely the first thing I noticed,” junior Julia Baird, whose organic chemistry class was covered with the bags, said. “It was just very overwhelming. You could easily see how many people [AIDS] would have affected.”

“That kind of singling out people and seeing people who could have AIDS really made you think twice. I could be sitting in this chair—this could be me,” she added. “I thought it was super-effective.”

Schalet said the main focus of AIDS day was education, but due to the topic’s sensitive nature, organizers avoided touching on statistics that implicated specific high-risk groups.

“It was really trying to strike a balance between trying to pass out as much relevant information as possible while trying to be sensitive and aware of those who are infected by the infection,” Schalet said.

He estimated that students distributed 500-800 red ribbon pins on campus throughout the day.

Senior Jentien Pan had not heard about the day ahead of time but ended up wearing a red pin to show her support.

“I was just working at the [DUC] desk and two girls who were involved with GlobeMed came by with the ribbons, and I want to show solidarity on campus in support of it,” she said.

She noted that there are educational resources on campus for people to learn about AIDS but said she still finds the campus community to be largely undereducated about the disease.

“I actually took the AIDS class that is offered at Wash. U., so there were at least 150 kids in that class who were very aware of [AIDS],” she said. “I think the community as a whole doesn’t have that much awareness just because it is not something that directly affects the student population necessarily.”

With additional reporting by Wei-Yin Ko.