AIDS Awareness offered at GSC

In July of 1981, the New York Times pub­lished an arti­cle about a rare can­cer that was quickly spread­ing among homo­sex­ual men.  Lit­tle did the read­ers know that this dis­ease would change the land­scape of Amer­i­can life forever.

The can­cer that was dev­as­tat­ing the gay pop­u­la­tions of New York, San Fran­cisco, and Los Ange­les was AIDS.

Thirty years after the arrival of this epi­demic, mil­lions of Amer­i­cans have died, and mil­lions more are still in the bat­tle for their lives.

Great achieve­ments have been made to irra­di­ate this dis­ease. One such achieve­ment has drawn thou­sands of Atlantans to Pied­mont Park in early autumn to raise aware­ness and much needed funds to ben­e­fit peo­ple liv­ing with this ter­ri­ble disease.

This year, Gainesville State Col­lege helped in this effort.

Pro­fes­sor Michal­lene McDaniel’s Con­tem­po­rary Global Issues class raised an astound­ing $2,020.

“It was dif­fi­cult in the begin­ning (to raise money.) But I was per­sis­tent and even­tu­ally raised $115,” said Jamie Curtis.

Rais­ing money is a dif­fi­cult task in this eco­nomic cli­mate, which makes the money that GSC raised that much more extraordinary.

The AIDS Walk is a main source for fund­ing for AID Atlanta and the 11 dif­fer­ent orga­ni­za­tions that col­lab­o­rate with it.

Fund­ing has dras­ti­cally decreased in recent years, due to the reces­sion. Unfor­tu­nately, in peri­ods of eco­nomic dis­par­ity, sex­u­ally trans­mit­ted infec­tions increase in diagnosis.

McDaniel, aware of this, decided to bring aware­ness to this issue.

Sev­eral years ago, McDaniel decided to begin teach­ing a class out­lin­ing the AIDS epi­demic. The class is offered in the fall and is usu­ally full.

McDaniel does not assign tests for this class, instead opt­ing for ser­vice learn­ing grades so stu­dents can par­tic­i­pate in the lessons being taught, one such being the AIDS Walk.

“I’m glad I got to do the oppor­tu­nity to do such an amaz­ing thing ben­e­fit­ting so many peo­ple. (This event) has really opened my eyes to the chal­lenges that peo­ple face every day, the con­stant bat­tle that so many mil­lions of peo­ple have to fight just to stay alive,” said Chelsea Nally.

That is one main goal for McDaniel’s class.

“Peo­ple are still get­ting this dis­ease, and they don’t have to,’” said McDaniel.

Another goal for the class is to end the stigma sur­round­ing the disease.

McDaniel reg­u­larly invites guest speak­ers to talk with the class. One such speaker is a friend of McDaniel’s and is cur­rently liv­ing with HIV, Jason Lee.

Lee was very open and hon­est, telling the class every­thing from how he became infected, to his self-destructive behav­ior after he received the pos­i­tive diag­no­sis, to what life is like for him on a daily basis, and then offer­ing to answer any ques­tions the stu­dents might have for him. “I’ll tell you any­thing you want to know,” said Lee.

Stu­dents are shown sev­eral movies that address a vari­ety of issues sur­round­ing the AIDS epidemic.

At the begin­ning of the semes­ter, McDaniel showed the HBO minis­eries “And the Band Played On,” which fol­lowed the doc­tors and epi­demi­ol­o­gists dur­ing the period of the out­break, and described the government’s bla­tant dis­re­gard for the virus.

At the end of the semes­ter, on World AIDS day, McDaniel’s class is plan­ning some­thing to inform the stu­dent body about HIV/AIDS. The details are still in the works but if it is any­thing like the rest of the semes­ter, it is sure to be a com­plete success.