I would like to begin by thanking all the great faculty members, students and administrators who worked diligently to make hosting the National FACE AIDS Conference a reality for Fairfield University. Fairfield won the bid to host because of the success of our chapter, the World AIDS week initiative, and the close relationships that our students share with faculty and administrators.
As one of the organizers of the conference, I consider the event a resounding success for the FACE AIDS National team. Fairfield was host to students from 11 different colleges around the country, the University of Texas, Tufts and Stanford.
These students were treated to prestigious speakers and panelists that touched not only the pandemic of AIDS, but also on issues of social justice, foreign policy, public health and moral ethics. Specifically, they targeted the staggering high number of deaths and the devastation of economies and households by the disease. Furthermore, the absolute disparity between treatment, death rates and HIV mother-to-child transmission rates call into question the slow response of governments and the silence of many people.
The mission of FACE AIDS is to connect the everyday person with the plight of those who are afflicted with HIV/AIDS in poorer areas. We are a group of college students who are dedicated to awareness and consciousness, which are two vital avenues that lead to critical thinking and analysis at a Jesuit institution.
Despite the success of the conference for the chapters across the country, I am disappointed in the lack of turn out by our student body.
Friday night’s keynote speaker, Mr. Stephen Lewis, saw roughly 200 people, of which about 40 were Fairfield undergrads not affiliated with our chapter. Should I mention that Stephen Lewis was selected by Time Magazine as one of the 25 greatest heroes and icons of the world? Some may ask who else is in that category, and the answer is people like Bill Gates, the Dalai Lama and Oprah Winfrey.
As the former director of UNICEF and one of the foremost authorities on AIDS in Africa, one would think that students would have filed in to hear a speech that echoed the ideals of not only Jesuit education but of a call to moral obligation, dignity and, most importantly, social justice.
I am always one to defend the rights of people to do whatever they wish with their time, but I found myself questioning just how active, caring and concerned students are.
How do you reply when a nursing major from the University of Iowa asks why only a small handful of our nursing majors came to the keynote and conference?
Questions of public health, healthcare, access and rights of patients; are these not fundamental issues that will define their careers? These same reasons make it lamentable that our pre-med undergraduates were not out in full force.
How do international studies and politics majors not take advantage of hearing a world-renowned figure in their field talk about government spending, public policy and reasons behind the disparities between the Western World and Africa?
I question how people who have actually read Mountains Beyond Mountains, the book assigned to freshmen over the summer, could pass up the chance to hear one of Dr. Paul Farmer’s peers on social medicine or one of his colleagues, Dr. Evan Lyon, talk about their clinic in Cange, Haiti.
It is not my goal to lecture or to tell every student that they must get involved with FACE AIDS. However, it is my goal to illustrate that Fairfield provides various opportunities to become engaged and make a difference, both locally and globally.
Student activism is part of what makes college great, and its merits can be seen from fighting AIDS and cancer, to helping rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I can say with conviction that if people put others before themselves apathy would not be an issue.
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