WESTCHESTER : Loyola Students Move AIDS Benefit off Campus

When a group of undergraduate students in a business management class at Loyola Marymount University was given an assignment two months ago to organize a fund-raiser, they thought they had the perfect concept.

They decided to set up an AIDS awareness dance at the school, with proceeds going to a Culver City hospice that cares for HIV-positive infants and children with AIDS.

But the project hit a snag: The students say the Catholic university banned the group’s plans to distribute free condoms and brochures promoting safe sex, prompting the students to move the event off campus.

Jennifer Shubert, a 21-year-old member of the group, said university health officials told her the condoms and safe-sex information were prohibited because the Catholic Church believes they advocate premarital sex, a violation of church doctrine.

“We are a Catholic institution and we subscribe to Catholic teachings on premarital sex,” said university spokeswoman Jill Perry. “Condoms are certainly readily available to students off campus if they want them.”

That position disturbs some students, Shubert said.

“This is the ‘90s. We’re at a university. It’s ridiculous to pretend that sex isn’t happening,” Shubert said. “The kids here should have this information available to them. I feel we’re not just fighting the school, but also the Catholic Church.”

Shubert said the event will take place at Sharkeez, a Santa Monica nightclub, on April 14. But the group worries that attendance will suffer because many students who live on campus do not have cars, and public transportation is not convenient, she said.

Organizers plan to charge a $5 entry fee and hope to raise $1,000 for Caring for Babies with AIDS. The nonprofit organization cares for 14 children, ages 5 and under.

Employees at the hospice were puzzled by the university’s position.

“It’s very troubling to us--they’ve always been very supportive and included us in their on-campus unfurling of the AIDS quilt about a year and a half ago,” said Ginny Foat, executive director of Caring for Babies.

Foat said many of the babies’ mothers are themselves college age or younger and could have benefited from the type of information that will be distributed at the dance.

“You just can’t bury your head in the sand on an issue like this,” Foat said. “This epidemic is not about just gay and old people. The disease is growing in the heterosexual community and Catholic kids are not immune.”