Memorial Quilt Reminds Campus Community of Devastating Effect of AIDS
Campus Marks 20th Anniversary of AIDS Day

Ioana Patringenaru | December 8, 2008

A woman looks at portraits of AIDS survivors on display at The Loft@UCSD.

Minnie Low, a third-year student at UC San Diego, looked quietly at three panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt displayed in the Price Center Ballroom East. Asked why she decided to visit with the quilt, she began to cry.

“I’m thinking about how many people have lost the people that they loved,” Low said. “So many of them were so young.”

The quilt panels on display Dec. 1 showed pictures, many of them of young men, surrounded by messages from their family and friends, as well as religious imagery. A panel was devoted to the memory of a three-year-old girl, named Rachel Rose Jones, who died at the beginning of the epidemic, in 1987. A small pink and blue plush bunny was sewn near a small shirt adorned with lady bugs and flowers and the words “Daddy Loves You.”

The quilt display was part of a daylong event marking the 20th anniversary of AIDS Day on campus. The day’s activities included a candle-light vigil, talks and multi-media and arts presentations. More than 20 student organizations and departments were involved in planning the day, said Shaun Travers, director of UCSD’s LGBT Resource Center.

“It’s such a powerful reminder of the impact of HIV/AIDS,” Travers said. “Until there are both a cure and a vaccine, I think we’ll continue to mark this day.”

Even after a cure is found, AIDS Day will still serve as an important way to remember victims, he added. At UCSD, the event grows larger every year, Travers said. This year, activities spread over the second floor of the Price Center East, including the ballroom, the Cross-Cultural Center and The Loft @UCSD. That space was showing pictures of AIDS survivors, with first-person accounts. “This gives you so much hope,” Travers said, looking at the photographs.

From left: Michelle Di Fiore, the vice-president of Face AIDS at UCSD, and Richard Belmontez, the EH&S training manager, man a table with informational materials at the Price Center East.

In the ballroom, where the AIDS Memorial Quilt was on display, Low said she became more aware of the impact of HIV/AIDS after taking a class titled AIDS, Science and Society. She added it was important to mark AIDS Day. The event, she said, is a good opportunity for those who are not affected by the disease to see how it affects others.

Meanwhile, Dr. Joseph Caperna from UC San Diego’s Owen Clinic gave a keynote address Dec. 1 at the Loft. Since 2003, physicians from the Owen Clinic has been serving HIV patients in one of the poorest provinces of South Africa, the “Eastern Cape,” also home to Nelson Mandela. Caperna offered personal perspectives of his experiences from four trips to South Africa since 2005. After his talk, the Arusha Project presented stories from students, who also have traveled to Africa to address HIV/AIDS in the region. Then, a group of young people from UCSD's Youth HIV Council program shared their stories, drawing on experiences of youth living with HIV and those newly infected with HIV.

Also Monday, the San Diego County Office of Public Health provided free, anonymous rapid HIV testing on Library Walk to UCSD staff, faculty and students. Red ribbons and condom "roses" were distributed throughout the day at that location, along with prevention information and other educational materials. A large display of red ribbons filled the green above Price Center Plaza.

Members of the UCSD community could light candles in memory of AIDS victims.

Artists who are living with and have been impacted by HIV/AIDS, including John Carlos Keasler and Jae Hansen, displayed their work at The Loft. The Cross-Cultural Center hosted films discussing the impact of HIV/AIDS on specific communities nationally and internationally. The UCSD Libraries produced a World AIDS Day display in the breezeway at the Biomedical Library and a del.icio.us site regarding the day. Interactive self-learning stations could found in the in the Price Center East Ballroom, with online access to resources and information regarding HIV/AIDS. Also in the ballroom, a Wall of Remembrance was available for members of the community to personally reflect on the effects of HIV/AIDS on their own lives and those close to them.

Events were co-sponsored by a number of organizations and departments at UCSD, including the LGBT Resource Center, the Student Health Center, Student Health Advocates, Associated Students (AS), the Librarians Association of the University of California - SD Diversity Committee, the LGBT Staff & Faculty Association, the HIV Neurobehavrioral Research Center (HNRC), the Anti Viral Research Center (AVRC), Arusha Project, the Owen Clinic, the HIV Youth Council, Environment, Health and Safety, University Centers, Face AIDS, Housing*Dining*Hospitality, Counseling and Psychological Services, the UC San Diego Bookstore, OASIS, the Loft, Equal Opportunity/Staff Affirmative Action, the UCSD Libraries, the Women's Center, the Cross-Cultural Center and many committed individuals throughout the University community.