University Practices Safe Education and Prevention

It was the storm after the calm. As increasing numbers of heterosexuals contracted the AIDS virus, the nation began to perceive the disease as a threat not restricted to the gay community. Public health officials began distributing condoms and safe sex guidelines and college campuses developed additional ways to deal with the health crisis.

As a result of rising fear of AIDS, many universities recently established task forces to consider the impact of the disease and organized substantial AIDS education efforts. Princeton's health services began selling condoms this year for the first time in its history, says its director, and Dartmouth's health services achieved national notoriety when the school distributed safe sex kits that included condoms, lubricants and rubber dams--used during oral sex--at registration.

In addition, many universities' health services offer AIDS testing. However, many health official suggest that students seriously consider taking the test elsewhere because the record of the test becomes part of the permanent medical folder, which is often sent to employers and insurance companies.

Harvard has not escaped the burgeoning interest in AIDS. The University last fall started a committee on AIDS and this year two undergraduate groups distributed free condoms on campus and sex therapist Ruth Westheimer and Surgeon General C. Everett Koop delivered speeches about AIDS. A student AIDS benefit committee sponsored several fundraising events this year. University Health Services (UHS) officials released the information that six Harvard affiliates have died of AIDS, none of whom were undergraduates.

Earlier this spring, the Law School Student Council drew fire from a gay activist group for urging students to be tested for AIDS without discussing the drawbacks of having the test done at UHS. Meanwhile, UHS officials are discouraging students from being tested for AIDS at UHS if they do not belong to a high-risk group. At Dartmouth, health officials recently decided to allow students to be tested anonymously, says John H. Turco '70, director of the school's health services.

Almost 21,000 Americans have died from the disease so far, which was first identified in 1981, but until recently most of the victims were homosexuals or intravenous drug users. More than 60 percent of adult American AIDS victims were homosexual or bisexual and 17 percent of them were IV drug users, say officials at the Center for Disease Control. National health experts estimate that between one and 1.5 million Americans have antibodies to the virus that causes AIDS but say they do not know what percentage of them will develop the disease, which has an incubation period of up to 15 years.

Despite the increased publicity, students and administrators say AIDS has had little impact on the Harvard community. The special committee meets infrequently and is primarily concerned with the community's reaction to AIDS victims, as UHS has primary responsibility for education about the disease.

The group will probably meet again over the summer "to make sure that everything is going well," says committee member Robert H. Scott, vice president for administration, adding that there are no pressing issues for the committee to address.

Most health officials agree that students have become more interested in and better informed about the disease. Peer counselors at Peer Contraceptive Counseling (PCC) and Contact, a group that focuses on issues surrounding homosexuality, say they have received more calls about AIDS this year than last.

However, peer counselors and health officials add that most undergraduates, particularly heterosexuals, tend to feel that their youth makes them immune to the disease. They therefore ignore the recommended precautions, such as using condoms.

"At this point, [students] are thinking 'I know what you are supposed to do, but I can't do it'," says Cara L. Vaughn, public information manager for student health services at the University of California at Berkeley. But some of the information seems to have sunk in, as condom sales at the UHS pharmacy rose this year, with much of the increase coming in bulk packages of three dozen condoms.

Attitudes are changing as well, officials say. "What we are seeing is that people are less apt to hide behind the safety factor of calling it a gay disease," says Dartmouth's Turco. "A lot of people won't change their habits, but the information is there, and we are getting more of an educated society."

"At first students were scared away [from AIDS information sessions] because it was seen as a gay disease. Much more information is coming out now," says Louis A. Pyle Jr., director of the health services at Princeton, where there have been no cases of AIDS.

Unfortunately, AIDS' increased prominence has also had negative effects at other universities. Some schools have witnessed an up-swing in anti-gay incidents, which officials say may be due to fear of AIDS.

"There have been some incidents on campus, including some derogatory posters about gays. I don't know if it is related to AIDS but [anti-gay sentiment] is not typical for this campus," says Carol A. Southard, head nurse at the University of Chicago student health service. Turco says that while anti-gay sentiment is not particularly visible at Dartmouth, "it's always in the background." Vaughn says, "Many students with AIDS [at Berkeley] go elsewhere for treatment for fear of being ostracized."

But Harvard has thus far escaped the storm. "I have not received a single telephone call from a student or parent asking about our AIDSpolicy," says Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III."The community is a very sophisticated one and isdetermined that the rights of gay students andorganizations be protected."

School officials are bracing themselves for anincreased presence of AIDS on campus. Healthofficials at Berkeley have calculated that on theaverage university campus with a population ofabout 30,000 students, 45 to 90 students willdevelop AIDS over the course of five years. Theyalso predicted that of the 2.7 million students atCalifornia institutions of higher learning,between 4658 and 22,770 can be expected to developAIDS or ARC (AIDS-related complex) at some pointduring their lives