CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- In order to improve AIDS and HIV education among young blacks, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services last year gave $15,000 grants to the 11 historically black colleges and universities throughout the state.
The schools were told they could use the grants in whatever way they deemed necessary to educate students.
Johnson C. Smith University here decided to do something groundbreaking with the money: Its leaders created a seminar called HIV 101, which is administered as part of the school’s mandatory Freshman Orientation class. Since Freshman Orientation is a graduation requirement at the school, so is HIV 101.
Johnson C. Smith, with an enrollment of about 1,300, is the only college in the country, to have such a requirement, officials here said.
Maya Gibbons, director of counseling and testing services at JCSU, told BlackAmericaWeb.com that the school wanted to do more than simply make HIV 101 available to incoming freshmen.
“We toyed around with a lot of different things that our students could be exposed to, but in the end, we wanted something that would have a lasting effect,” said Gibbons, who is heading the seminar with Dr. Karen Butler, chairman of Health and Human Performance.
“I talked with Dr. Gail Summerskill, who devises the Freshman Orientation class, and we worked HIV 101 into the program. HIV 101 has become a part of the class, and you have to pass the class to graduate. HIV 101 is one of the requirements to graduate now. We think that’s a good thing.”
The seminar is done in conjunction with the Charlotte-based Metrolina AIDS Project, whose staff comes to the school and helps teach the class.
“It really paints a picture of the prevalence and how quickly the virus spreads,” said Gibbons. “It shows how vulnerable the students are to the virus. A lot of our students were coming to school with all sorts of ideas and myths about HIV and AIDS. This separates the myths from the facts. And the students, instead of shying away from this, are really into it. They’re like sponges. They’re showing a keen interest in wanting to take care of themselves.”
Del Williams of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services said the statistics bear out a need to provide educational assistance to historically black colleges. Hence, the grants were a no-brainer.
“Is there a reason why we would look at young African-Americans at historically black colleges? Of course, there is,” said Williams, who works in the HIV-STD Prevention and Care branch. “If we look at the North Carolina population … about 22 percent of the eight million people are African-American. But if you look at the new cases of HIV in the state, about 70 percent of those infected are African-American.
“In addition, we were seeing an unexpected number of recent infections that were young black men, and there was an association with students at colleges or the (infected) person, himself, was a college student. And, unfortunately, most of those people were associated with historically black colleges. That got our attention.”
Some of the other black colleges that received the grant hold regular HIV and AIDS discussions and rallies on campus. Other schools use the money for research.
Butler, who is heading the JCSU program along with Gibbons, said Johnson C. Smith isn’t doing anything worthy of unusual praise; it’s what the school should be doing. Butler also said she is immensely proud that the school has taken the lead in making HIV education required learning.
“We do take (HIV and AIDS education) seriously here, and we want people to know that,” said Butler, who is chair of the Health and Human Performance Department at JCSU and hopes to make HIV 101 its own class separate from Freshman Orientation.
“We can’t have our students coming here straight from high school just knowing the basics. They need to know how to talk to their partners about these things. They need to know as much as possible.”
Added Butler: “The price is just too costly for them to be unaware. We have to change things for our young, black students. HIV and AIDS are serious. It’s not just a black thing. But it sure [BEGIN ITALICS] is [END ITALICS] a black thing.”
