11 HBCUs in N.C. Work Jointly on AIDS

North Carolina’s 11 historically black colleges and universities are working together to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS after state and federal researchers identified an outbreak among the college-age population in the state.

Photo credit: Campus Echo Hydeia Broadbent looks on during the March conference at North Carolina Central. Broadbent, 19, is a renowned speaker on HIV/AIDS.

For years, HIV and AIDS have disproportionately affected minorities in the South. But a recent study by UNC-Chapel Hill medical fellows and follow-up research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed a pronounced rise in HIV infections among North Carolina’s college students. The study was the first in U.S. history to document an HIV outbreak in the college student demographic and confirmed the North Carolina college campuses as high transmission areas for HIV.

Phyllis Gray, a project manager in the HIV/STD Prevention branch of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, said the research results were surprising because college students traditionally have not been considered at high risk for contracting the virus.

“We have scared the nation,” Gray said.

Though more than half of the 84 infected students found by researchers were at predominantly white universities, the sobering research results were enough to motivate health officials at the state’s 11 black institutions and one with a majority Native American student body to increase their efforts to educate students about sexually transmitted diseases.

“I think it’s up to us to get behind ourselves,” Janet Lattimore, a health educator at North Carolina A&T, said. “The academic institutions, we need to do all that we can for our students.”

Lattimore and her colleagues across the state realized the severity of the outbreak, and prevention messages have increased.

In Charlotte, Johnson C. Smith University now includes “HIV 101” as a part of freshman orientation. North Carolina Central University, located in the state’s Triangle region where the outbreak was first identified, became the first of the black institutions to offer HIV testing. Central also plans to raise awareness of STDs during fall orientation. At North Carolina A&T, a plethora of HIV/STD awareness-related activities began, along with several student-led groups aiming to educate their peers.

A major contributor in the fight against HIV on North Carolina HBCUs has been Project Commit to Prevent, a state initiative working with the HBCU Health Promotion Alliance, which consists of North Carolina A&T, Fayetteville State University, North Carolina Central and Saint Augustine’s College. Lorna Harris, the former dean of N.C. A&T’s School of Nursing, is executive director of Project Commit to Prevent. Harris says its goal is to empower and educate students to change their behaviors so they will not put themselves at risk for HIV.

“People need education from the time they hit our campuses. We don’t want a scenario where you’re graduating from college, even before you’ve got a job and insurance and security, and you’re finding out you’re HIV-positive,” Harris said.

One of the initiatives started by Project Commit to Prevent was the Stomp Out HIV/STD Conference, held at N.C. Central earlier this year. Participants included university administrators and health educators, students and state and federal health officials. The three-day conference gave the groups a chance to discuss and plan strategies for the ongoing fight against sexually transmitted diseases.

“For CDC to come up with strategies to impact the spread of HIV and STDs, they have to understand the experience of people in college,” Harris said.

Along with developing a prevention message that would resonate with the current generation of college students, health officials and university faculty also agreed to focus prevention messages heavily on incoming freshmen. Harris recalled her time at A&T three decades ago, when students usually were not sexually active until they enrolled in college.

“Now, students come to college and they’ve been sexually active, some of them, for four of five years. They’re a little bit more exposed, even if they’re not more sophisticated. So they’re at greater risk for catching HIV,” Harris said.

Despite Project Commit to Prevent’s STD prevention efforts and good intentions, a lack of permanent funding may bring the program to an end on Dec. 31. Gray, who is the liaison between the universities and N.C. Division of Public Health, is aggressively seeking more resources to ensure that Project Commit to Prevent and other HIV/STD programs continue.

Gray said this is the first time the state has had contracts with the 12 institutions with largely minority student bodies. “This is history,” Gray said. “My only disappointment is that we don’t have a steady stream of funding. Yet.”

David Jolly, an assistant professor of health education at N.C. Central, is optimistic that money for HIV prevention programs will be available in 2005 and beyond.

“It’s not going to end,” Jolly said. “The current round of funding winds down this December, but I’m fairly confident that the project will continue and there will be additional funding to keep it going.”

However, certain events at the state-government level suggest otherwise. Though the number of HIV-infected college students has risen dramatically over the last four years, the North Carolina Legislature has not provided any additional funds for prevention. The state’s Division of Public Health, which includes HIV/STD prevention, could have its budget cut in the upcoming fiscal year. North Carolina Republicans have traditionally resisted budgeting money for HIV prevention and care programs, though many people believe such programs are more beneficial in the long run by keeping infected persons and those with the potential to become infected out of hospitals supported by taxpayers’ dollars.

Harris is aware that more money might not be available to fight HIV in the most effective way, but she says there is too much at stake to abandon the mission due to a lack of funding.

“If you’re paying five or six thousand a month for health care, you certainly aren’t going to be giving it to your alma mater,” Harris said. “If we don’t have additional funding you may not see the same level of service, but I think it will remain an issue of high priority for the schools.”

Other HBCUs participating in the education effort are Winston-Salem State, Elizabeth City State, Barber Scotia College, Shaw University, Fayetteville State University and Livingstone College. UNC-Pembroke is the school with primarily a Native American student body.

Chad Roberts is a student at N.C. A&T State University.

Posted July 29, 2004