Student Group Sponsors AIDS Education Forum

Students need to be better educated about their vulnerability to AIDS and how to protect themselves from exposure to the disease, said speakers yesterday, kicking off a three-day program geared toward training AIDS educators on college campuses.

The inter-collegiate conference, sponsored by Harvard-Radcliffe AIDS Education and Outreach (AEO), seeks to establish a network of Boston area colleges. Founded last year, AEO is an undergraduate organization devoted to educating students about the prevention of AIDS as well as the social ramifications of the spread of the disease.

"The purpose of the conference is to get these schools who were previously unrelated to exchange ideas," said Clara N. Lee '89. She said AEO hopes to "determine what is the state of AIDS education in schools."

Twelve representatives from Boston College, Brandeis University, Newbury College, Simmons College and MIT listened as speakers outlined both the social and medical issues surrounding AIDS.

Harvey J. Makadon, director of Boston AIDS Consortium, said that one to one-and-a-half million people in the U.S. are infected with the virus. He also said that there are no certain ways to practice safe sex.

"Whether something is 100 percent safe, you really can't say," Makadon said. "The main thing is to use common sense."

But social inexperience and conflicting messages about sex can lead students to act unwisely in sexual relations, said Christine Lyman, health counselling coordinator at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Students are putting themselves at risk," she said.

By the time students have completed their undergraduate education, about 80 percent will have had sexual intercourse. And since the period between infection and the appearance of symptoms is usually 7.8 years, "students will be leaving college infected without knowing [whether they have been infected]," Lyman said.

The conference will continue through Sunday, with workshops, discussions and demonstrations designed to help the student representatives bring an effective AIDS education program to their own campuses.