Spanning eight tables, the timeline of AIDS history is scattered appropriately with multicolored condoms and awareness pins.
The timeline — on display until Sunday — is part of a collaborative effort between the University’s Cultural Forum and Lane County’s HIV Alliance to raise awareness for World AIDS Day today.
The timeline shows the history of the pandemic for those who might not know the details on the history of AIDS, University graduate student Daniel Linver said.
“Everyone should understand what the history is,” Linver said. “I hope people can see just by the physical length of (the timeline) that this is an overwhelming issue that affects everyone.”
Linver hopes the events this week will encourage people to act and engage in campus and community events.
“The Cultural Forum and HIV Alliance are just programs that want to help,” Linver said. “This is not an isolated issue, and we can’t live in ignorance of what is happening.”
The Cultural Forum, teaming up with other groups in the community, is hosting various events throughout the week.
This evening in the EMU Ballroom, the HIV Alliance will co-host a lecture featuring Dr. Bob Fischer, formerly of the World Health Organization and the U.S. National Institute of Health. His talk will delve further into the history of AIDS and will speak to the worldwide challenges AIDS presents, Linver said.
“If the timeline appeared interesting, this talk is a good way of getting more information,” Linver said.
Melissa Adelman, development coordinator for the Alliance, says while the two organizations have worked together in the past, this will be the first time they bring an expert on campus to speak for the day of awareness.
“Along with Dr. Fischer, an HIV-positive student will speak about her experience, and so the audience will get an idea of what’s happening in the world at large and locally,” Linver said.
A big part of this week for Adelman is getting students to understand that AIDS doesn’t just happen in Africa but in every community around the world.
Dylan Loigman, the Cultural Forum assistant coordinator, is in charge of one of AIDS week’s biggest events on Friday night — the third annual Condom Fashion Show.
From the end of last year’s show to minutes before the music starts on Friday, Loigman said quite a bit of work has gone into organizing the event.
The show uses more than 15,000 non-lubricated condoms of all different colors.
Designers have a lot of freedom to create whatever outfits they want, Loigman said, and despite many avant-garde designs over the last two years, the show hasn’t gotten any negative feedback.
“The show is already out there and outrageous,” Loigman said. “And the environment of college is similar so students aren’t especially (negatively) reacting toward it. It merely sends a safe sex message.”
Linver said the show serves as a combination of education and entertainment —”edu-tainment.”
“This is an opportunity for people for people to interact and laugh, but also understand that AIDS is serious issue,” Linver said.
“It’s important to realize that people have become complacent about HIV nowadays,” Adelman said. “This is not just something that happens ‘somewhere else’ – it is here, and hopefully this gives people the opportunity to get involved.”
A report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in September 2008 found that new data estimates HIV incidences, previously estimated at 40,000 new infections per year over the past decade, is actually higher, standing at approximately 56,300 new infections per year.
“There are ways we can help locally,” Linver said. “We can’t just stand idly by as we watch the current critical situation happen.”
Also on Friday, Students for Global Health will host a FACEAIDS concert at the Lorax co-op on East 15th Avenue and Alder Street, featuring local band Adventure Galley and comedy rap group Supwitchugirl. The money raised will go to AIDS treatment in rural Rwanda.
“Yes, this week is about awareness,” Linver said. “But it is also having fun and knowing it is important to be safe.”
[email protected]