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Bird's EveView
Monday, November 4, 1996
Some students not testing for HIV
Clinics give anonymous confidential screenings
hiv testing options
Watkins Memorial Health Center offers both confidential and anonymous testing. Anonymous testing is available only on Mondays by appointment. Confidential testing can be done on a walk-in basis. Both tests cost $19. Those tested anonymously must pay in cash so that no record can be kept. Results from confidential tests will be returned within four business days, while anonymous results will be available in two weeks.
For an appointment or for more information, call 864-9507.
Planned Parenthood in the Orchard Corners shopping center, 15th and Kasold streets, offers anonymous HIV tests for $15.50. Because Planned Parenthood does not take walk-ins, appointments should be made by calling 832-0281.
Two do-it-yourself HIV tests can be ordered by calling a toll-free number. For the Confidase test, from Johnson and Johnson, call 1-800-THE-TEST. The Home Access Express HIV-1 Test System can be ordered by calling 1-800-HIV-TEST. Both tests cost $49.95, plus shipping and handling.
FY1:
story by lindsey henry
Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Health Center, said concerned students should be tested six months after possible infection for 100 percent accuracy, even though testing after six weeks is 98 percent accurate.
illustration by elaine melko
College students in the United States are a marked target. Each year, 40,000 Americans are infected with HIV, and of those, half are young people under the age of 25.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV is now the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 25 and 44, because college settings are breeding grounds for the terminal disease.
An HIV trends report breaks down infection statistics into categories of race, gender and area of the country in which those infected live. The most recent trend report released by the CDC estimated more than 60 percent of those at risk for HIV had not been tested.
Several options exist in Lawrence to combat these statistics.
Charles Yockey, chief of staff at Watkins Memorial Health Center, said Watkins offered two types of HIV testing. Confidential testing requires students to give their name. Their results will be kept classified in Watkins' health file, where only Watkins medical staff will have access to the results. Those wanting complete secrecy can be tested anonymously, using a false name or an identification number. The only difference between the tests is the amount of time it takes for results to be returned.
Confidential tests are screened in Watkins' own lab, and results are available in four business days. Anonymous tests are sent to a lab in Topeka for screening. Students desiring anonymity must wait two weeks for results.
Yockey said that more students chose confidential tests because they didn't have to wait as long for the results.
"We see probably four students a day for confidential tests and four a week for anonymous testing," he said.
Though Watkins has a steady flow of students who want to be tested, Yockey said, not enough students take responsibility for their lives.
He said he thought the students with riskier lifestyles were not tested as often.
"People don't want to ever admit there is the possibility that they are at risk for HIV, but you can't get a negative result and not change your behavior," Yockey said. "There is not a student at KU that doesn't know not to get drunk and have sex with some stranger on a weekend. But it happens every weekend. Knowledge does not always change behavior."
A KU student who did not wish to be identified said she decided to be tested when she realized the gambles she had taken with her life.
"I had tried to ignore the possibility that it could really happen to me," she said. "I thought I had used good judgment, but you never really know."
She said her outlook on life had changed since she received her negative results.
"I feel like, all of the sudden, I have another chance," she said. "The two weeks I had to wait for my results were the worst weeks of my life. I felt like my life had a timer on it. I hated knowing the danger I put myself, and possibly others, into because HIV is a reality."
Yockey said he estimated that 60 to 75 students at the University were infected with HIV.
"That is relatively low," Yockey said. "But it is here."
That B relatively low, Tockey said. Terri Roeber, site administrative coordinator for Planned Parenthood, said only 4.4 percent of the combined population in Jefferson, Douglas and Franklin counties were HIV posi-
itive. The counties surrounding Wichita reported 33.5 percent of their combined population was HIV positive, the largest number in Kansas.
Planned Parenthood tests about five people each week, Roebersaid.
probably four of the five are under the age of 24," she said. Planned Parenthood is working on ways to emphasize the importance of HIV testing for college students.
"The need to be tested is not always a real common belief among young people," Roeber said. "So we will be offering free HIV testing on Monday, Dec. 2."
The testing will be anonymous, she said.
Roeber said that although Planned Parenthood and Watkins both offered HIV testing, there was no competition to recruit students to be tested.
"We just want people to be tested," she said.
Sculptor's works reflect discontent
Carlos Columbino's artwork, such as his Petott Morte, is now able to be shown in Paraguay where the country's perennial state of repression has been eliminated.
Carlos Columbino has returned to the University of Kansas from Paraguay to learn about art and to teach students.
Leading international visual artist explores art and creative expression
In a country where individuality and artistic voice were oppressed for more than 30 years, the light of Carlos Columbino's art has shown forth for the world to see.
Columbino visited the University of Kansas 12 years ago and has returned to explore art and teach students the value of free personal expression.
He is considered a leading visual artist. His works are painted on plywood and sculpted from wood. They frequently show images that are confined with string, and they also show humans with their eyes closed or without a head.
Columbino said the works displayed his discontent with his homeland, Paraguay.
Story by Stephanie Fite
"It is hard to realize your dreams in Paraguay because there are no major outlets there. It is hard to cross the barriers and go beyond that," he said. "My art is my passion because it is me. Being here is like being cultured in another culture."
The republic of Paraguay is about the size of California, land-locked between Argentina and Brazil. It was considered South America's empty quarter because it had closed its borders. Paraguay has had a turbulent history of repressive government and relentless dictators, but it is attempting to become more democratic.
For more than two decades, Columbino said that he lived under a dictator who murdered and tortured
"We still don't have the ability to communicate art," Columbino said. "The changes going on will be for the next generation. We are developing a place for the young."
Columbino has exhibited his works all around the U.S. from San Francisco to Texas. He ends his U.S. tour in Lawrence. His latest works are on exhibit in the Spencer Museum of Art.
Paraguay's political dissidents and other citizens.
Although the country's perennial state of repression has been eliminated, Columbino said that Paraguay's progress was slow.
Maria Velasco, assistant professor of art, said that visiting international artists, like Columbino, were essential to broadening students' minds.
"Being able to connect with someone whose life and values are so different opens students to different opportunities and things they may not have thought of before," she said. "Work is not successful in isolation. It is credited through networks. To make this experience richer, students were given the opportunity to visit with a professional artist and see themselves reflected in him."
Columbino is only the third international visiting artist to come to School of Fine Arts in about 20 years.
The United States Information Agency, funded by the Mid-American Arts Alliance, grants a $4500 scholarship to each visiting international instructor. The program sponsors the visual arts. Of 41 candidates nominated for the scholarship,17 were chosen this year.
"It is a challenge to remain an artist under a dictatorship that oppresses free expression. Expression is something we take for granted," McCrea said. "Students need to understand history, not just of their culture, but of the world."
The visiting international artists tour the U.S. for 30 days with a host interpreter. For 45 more days, they have the option to create art or teach at universities, colleges or artist colonies.
Elisabeth Kirsch, Mid American Arts Alliance IFRP coordinator, said the International Fellowship and Residency Program, which enabled Columbino to visit the University, would soon be eliminated.
Judith McCrea, director of the art department, said that Columbino provided an advantage to the department because he had overcome adversity.
The number of artists nominated for the program has dropped in recent years, from 80 to 40 applicants, because of budget cuts in the National Endowment for the Arts, Kirsch said.
"This is a tremendous diplomatic tool and wonderful public relations for this country and for the art world," she said. "I am sad to see this program disappear."
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