Campus Speakers Advise Peers : CSUN Cadre Bears AIDS Message

Students at California State University, Northridge have started an AIDS Awareness Speakers Bureau, and the first student speakers are making appointments to address campus groups about the disease and its prevention through safer sex.

The bureau was started by two CSUN staff members, Tom Piernik of the campus activities office and Jan Marquard of the Student Health Center. They say student speakers are needed because most students don’t believe they will get AIDS and because non-peer efforts to teach them otherwise have largely failed.

“I’m sure we’re reaching into a target audience that needs this message,” Piernik said.

The formation of the Speakers Bureau follows a decision in April by the CSUN Associated Students to install condom dispensers in the six restrooms of the Student Union. The campus was one of the first in California where such an action was taken.

CSUN officials say they have been pleasantly surprised at the lack of protest since the condom machines were installed in June.

“We have had absolutely no negative comment. . . . nothing, not even a glimmer of negativism,” said Edmund Peckham, dean of students.

Many students are interested in joining the speakers bureau, partly because “AIDS is intriguing and sex is intriguing,” Marquand said. The bureau has 15 speakers.

“We in no way wanted to have them appear to be encouraging sexual practices,” Piernik said. The speakers, mostly campus leaders, have been advised to tell students that abstinence from sex is safest, but that there are safe-sex methods for those who feel they must have sex.

Piernik said no AIDS patient has been publicly identified on campus, and it is not known how many students, if any, have contracted acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

AIDS is a fatal disease spread by an exchange of body fluids such as blood and semen. Its primary victims are bisexual and homosexual men and intravenous drug users, although some people who have received transfusions have contracted the disease through contaminated blood.

The student speakers have undergone two days of training with an AIDS educator from UCLA Medical School. This semester, each speaker is expected to line up at least five audiences.

Each speaker will receive $150 at the end of the program. “We felt that we could recruit a better quality of student speaker if we offered financial compensation,” Piernik said.

During a meeting Tuesday night to identify potential audiences, the students--eight women and seven men--seemed eager and convinced that theirs is a righteous mission. The campus groups they picked included Young Republicans, the ski club, fraternities and sororities, ethnic student groups, coaches and athletic trainers.

“I think it’s going to be very well received,” said Lynn Westlund, a health sciences major. She said that, since undergoing the AIDS training, she has been peppered with questions about the disease from colleagues at work and her sorority sisters.

The students said that they plan to explain how AIDS is transmitted and how to avoid it. During rehearsals, one student recalled, “most of us highlighted how to use a condom.” A whispered reminder that one speaker had used a banana for the demonstration brought the carefully constructed decorum down in a crash of giggles and guffaws.

Leading discussions about AIDS and sex will present many challenges, the student speakers agreed.

For some, such topics can be scary or embarrassing. “At first, I was a little apprehensive,” said music major Mike McKelvey.

But, he said, “AIDS is such a frightening thing, you have to take responsibility. . . . You have to put your fear on the back burner.”