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Every Dec. 1, World AIDS Day brings awareness toward a disease that, according to worldaidsday.org, kills five people worldwide every minute of each day.
The Student Center is giving AIDS a week.
This will be the sixth year the Student Center has hosted a weeklong program to educate the SIUC campus about several issues regarding AIDS. Special Programs and Center Events (SPACE) sponsor the week of events, which begin today. They include a lecture by former Playboy model Rebekka Armstrong, who is currently living with the virus. The program will also feature information tables and displays in University Bookstore.
Susan Coriasco, assistant director of the Student Center, said AIDS Awareness Week started as an alternative to holiday activities. Past events included candlelight vigils and quilt displays in the ballroom.
She said although the idea of AIDS awareness began to commemorate World AIDS Day, the Student Center soon realized the program should span the entire week.
"It started out as a program for me, and it has become a crusade for us," Coriasco said. "We really feel strongly about it. The more we learn, the more we are like, 'Man, people really need to know this. Students really need to know this.' It only takes once and they could get AIDS."
The Student Center is centering its weekly events on Armstrong, who will speak Wednesday in Ballroom D.
"One Week," a film by Kappa Alpha Psi, will air Monday in the Student Center Auditorium. The movie depicts the life of an AIDS patient over a seven-day period.
Other activities include a concert featuring Voices of Inspiration, an Illinois Public Health Corrections and Community Initiative lecture and daily displays in the University Bookstore window. The closing ceremony Friday features Anthony King as guest speaker. A list of people living with the HIV virus will also be read during the service.
Students and community members may receive free anonymous HIV testing from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at either the Newman Catholic Student Center or the Longbranch Coffeehouse.
Nikki Hornsberry, graduate assistant for SPACE, said students should attend the events in order to learn more about the disease.
"AIDS doesn't discriminate," Hornsberry said. "It is silently killing all types of people. You could never know enough about it."
Although the week's events come toward the end of the semester, SPACE still welcomes students to attend the occasions they can.
"We want to urge students to go to as many of the events as possible," said Argus Tong, graduate assistant for SPACE. "Our mission is to educate."
Tong also said students are encouraged to come by the tables to gather more information. They could also pick up ribbons to promote awareness of the disease.
Although she never anticipated the awareness week would be more than one year, Coriasco said she believes the events help draw attention to AIDS.
"I feel like we are making a difference," Coriasco said. "If we make one person go get tested or if we make one person listen and change there way of thinking, then we have made a difference. That's what it's all about."
