World AIDS Day is held annually on Dec. 1; this event expanded World AIDS Day into a week of programs aimed at raising awareness of HIV/AIDS at UMR.

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The event referred to as “UMR AIDS Awareness Week” (AAW) was comprised of several programs, all of which were intended to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS on the UMR campus and in the Rolla, Missouri community. The programs that composed AAW, all of which received significant backing from the UMR residence halls, included: * a weeklong display of two sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt surrounded by booths containing many different facts involving the HIV/AIDS pandemic, * a toiletry drive involving residence hall communities and student organizations to benefit the AIDS Project of the Ozarks (APO), a non-profit regional HIV/AIDS support organization, * a “community night” open to both the UMR and Rolla communities which featured an interactive speech by the executive director of APO as well as a display of the two sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, * a sale of t-shirts promoting AAW, the proceeds of which benefited the World Health Organization, and * a “Brown Bag Lunch” series which brought numerous professional speakers to UMR – local persons living with AIDS, local HIV/AIDS case workers, an HIV/AIDS prevention educator and specialist, and a researcher seeking a cure/vaccine for HIV/AIDS. To put on an event such as AAW in such a conservative environment as UMR and the Rolla area was a tremendous feat. The DaVinci Society, the UMR student organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered students, faculty, staff, and allies, originally began coordinating the AAW effort in Fall 2002 with a target date of World AIDS Day 2002. After discovering the enormity of and the barriers associated with the project, and even after having a campus administrator tell them such a student-led program would not be possible, the DaVinci Society did not simply give up, but instead, over the period of nearly one year, enlisted the help of eight other campus organizations and six outside organizations to assist in the coordination, promotion, support, advertisement, and planning of the event. In all, over 250 people, ranging from students, faculty, and staff to general citizens of the City of Rolla, attended the programs that comprised AAW. While this number may seem low for a campus of 4500 students, given the extremely conservative and sometimes apathetic UMR environment and the fact that no such program near the magnitude of AAW had been put on in the Rolla area before sheds light on the success and groundbreaking impact of this event.

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The overall goal of this program was to raise awareness of the urgent issue of HIV/AIDS on the UMR campus and in the Rolla, Missouri community. The AAW event far exceeded its goal of simply making students and local citizens aware of fact that HIV/AIDS exists and is a serious issue to everyone; in addition, the event went on to benefit AIDS-related non-profit organizations and shed light onto many different areas that involve the HIV/AIDS issue – how HIV/AIDS can shatter families and the lives of its victims, how science is being used to make advancements in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS, how making smart sexual decisions is everyone’s responsibility, how HIV/AIDS is a serious and often overlooked issue in the Rolla region, how many commonly held misconceptions about HIV/AIDS are simply untrue, and what everyone can do to help in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This event went far above and beyond the goals originally set before it – an astonishing achievement for the first program of its sort and magnitude on the UMR campus.

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The AAW event left many positive and lasting effects on the UMR campus and Rolla area. This event educated over 250 participants on a very serious and taboo subject that is oftentimes left neglected in an environment as conservative as UMR. This event also set a precedent and sent a clear message to the campus and local community – that issues such as those addressed by AAW are important and will not go away if they are simply ignored, and that the UMR campus and the Rolla area seriously lacks in education on issues that fall along the lines of HIV/AIDS. Additional not-so-apparent positive effects arose from the successful execution of this program. In all, nearly 40 student volunteers and over 15 student organizations (inclusive of the UMR Residence Hall Association, several residence hall communities, and numerous residents of the halls), campus departments and programs, national and regional non-profit organizations, and local media organizations teamed together to make this event happen and become a success. That communication between so many individuals, groups, and organizations will certainly remain open and create new channels for future educational programming on the UMR campus and in the Rolla area.

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The AAW event was an enormous success – it met and greatly exceeded its goals of educating the campus population and general public in the Rolla area on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Utilizing a multifaceted approach to HIV/AIDS awareness helped the AAW event reach out and touch a variety of participants. Also, projects such as the toiletry drive put on in the residence halls and on campus benefited non-profit organizations such as APO and the World Health Organization. While at times unexpected situations and issues with this event arose, the organizers of this event expected such because never before had a large program of this kind been put on by a network of student organizations with limited support from campus administration. By working closely together, the DaVinci Society, the Residence Hall Association and a number of its constituents and members, Up ‘Til Dawn, UMR Student Union Board, UMR Student Council, UMR Wellness Program, Order of the Golden Shillelagh, the UMR Student Activities Office, AIDS Project of the Ozarks, the Regional AIDS Interfaith Network, the NAMES Project, KTTR Radio, KUMR Radio, and Rolla Daily News ensured that the UMR AIDS Awareness Week event did proceed smoothly and would be a successful event.

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Although the AAW event was a large-scale, multiple-program event that took a great amount of time to organize and fund, the event could indeed be adapted to other campuses. Dedication and cooperation amongst organizations would be required, however, if the magnitude of this event were to be maintained or increased. The more organizations (particularly those associated with the residence halls) involved the better, given the budget for supplies, bringing in speakers, advertising, and hosting a display of sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt may range anywhere from $3500 to $8000, depending upon the number of anticipated participants, the speakers brought in to present, and the number of quilt sections displayed. Whereas at UMR administrative and monetary support for this event was slightly less than mediocre, more liberal campuses would most likely provide the ability to put on an event similar to AAW with improved support from campus administration, faculty, and interested businesses and individuals. Whatever obstacles may exist, however, all campuses would benefit from events similar to AAW because, with increased education, the spread of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS can be greatly reduced, and the ignorance, fear, and discrimination of those with such diseases can be dispelled.

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