AIDS 101 : 1,200 Students Learn the Facts in UCLA’s Most Popular Class

UCLA freshman Sara Angargolian expected to learn statistics about the AIDS virus in her biology class, but she was not quite prepared for the reality check that accompanied the lesson.

After the first lecture, the business/economics major said she left feeling shocked, nauseated and quite depressed. She had not realized that more than 1 million people in the United States are HIV positive and that anybody--including herself--could get the virus.

“I didn’t know the disease was so big and that so many people were dying,” Angargolian said. “I actually did feel invincible, but now every time I go to class, that feeling shatters more and more.”

Angargolian is one of 1,200 students enrolled in the most popular course on the Westwood campus and the largest UCLA class in recent memory: AIDS and Other Sexually Transmitted Diseases.

Reasons for taking the class range from curiosity to necessity. At a time when the national Centers for Disease Control lists the college-age segment of the population as one of the fastest-growing groups in contracting the AIDS virus, students are searching for awareness with an increasing sense of urgency.

“It’s impossible for students not to be influenced by AIDS now,” said sophomore biology major Rachel Bush, who would like to teach a similar class in high school someday. “Not that everyone goes sleeping around all day long, but it’s something you have to think about when you start dating someone.”

The class was first offered at UCLA in 1989 as a series of talks by various visiting lecturers. Only 12 students signed up for the course. Five years later, after modifications that included a new instructor and format, and increasing AIDS awareness, the class size has surged.

“I consider this the most important class I teach,” said biology Professor Roger Bohman, who added that he teaches the class both as a public service and as a way to interest students in learning science. “Because students are sexually active, AIDS is very immediate to them, and I’d like them to appreciate the importance of the AIDS epidemic.”

Demand for the class prompted administrators to set up Ackerman Grand Ballroom this spring as a makeshift classroom. Where UCLA’s largest classroom, Moore Hall 100, has a seating capacity of about 420, the ballroom can accommodate 1,200 students. Still, hundreds of students were turned away.

Some students grumble about sitting in folding chairs without desks and about the large room. Sophomore Lilach Aviv said she was overwhelmed by the number of students and could hardly see the professor.

“I don’t even know what the teacher looks like,” Aviv said. “If I saw him walk past me, I wouldn’t recognize him.”

Seats near the front are coveted. But most of those who find themselves sitting toward the back say it does not matter as long as they can hear.

Many students say the class has already opened their minds and dispelled various myths about sexually transmitted diseases. “I didn’t really believe anything I heard before because someone will say one thing, and another person will say something else,” said freshman Bob Buch. “This class has begun to change my way of thinking and I’m getting the facts.”

About 85% of the course focuses on AIDS. The course covers fears and stereotypes, immunology, historical perspective of the epidemic and explores the various scientific and social issues raised by AIDS.

Students say the class influences them to change their way of life. “This class has a direct application to your lifestyle,” said Vicky Parente, a senior who took the course last year and is now a teaching assistant. “There were times when I left class and said, ‘Oh my gosh, sex is so scary!’ But you learn exactly how to moderate your behavior.

“For me, AIDS was almost always a mystery,” Parente said. “Now I know what it is, how I can get it, how I can protect myself and how it affects my body.”

For some, however, the class has offered a harsher reality. “One of the things I’ve realized with this class is that you’re not talking only to people who might get the disease but those who also have the disease,” Bohman said.

“One young man a few years back wrote a paper in which he said I was the first person who told him that he was going to die from this disease. He said he hoped no one had noticed him crying.”