Normally, as anybody else on campus would, I try to ignore the numerous flyers on Locust Walk as much as I can.

Honestly, your “clever” methods of trying to catch my attention by saying “Here, you throw this away!” is not funny and guarantees I will never check out your organization, ever (although I will never tire of accepting free bananas and watching Strictly Funk shake it).

A couple days ago, however, one group — AIDS Services in Asian Communities (ASIAC) — and their flyers did manage to catch my attention. ASIAC is a Philadelphia-based non-profit organization that dedicates itself to raising HIV/AIDS awareness within the city’s Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

First, kudos to ASIAC and groups like it that tirelessly dedicate themselves to important community issues such as HIV-related services.

Second, shame on the student population for apparently being so woefully ignorant of safe sex and HIV/AIDS issues that ASIAC felt that the only way to get students to get a HIV-test was by offering “free movie tickets” (see photo)!

Has it really come to a point where students need material incentives to check themselves for STI’s and HIV? What else will they have to give away to get our attention (insert three funny items of your choice)?

Are statistics — compiled through the 2008 Penn Health and Wellness Survey conducted by the Office of Student Health — no longer enough to convince people? What about the ones that indicate that a high percentage of sexually-active undergrads are not using condoms (87.4%, 10%, and 47.1% when engaging in oral, vaginal, and anal sex, respectively) and that only 13.9% of the Penn student population reported getting tested in the last academic year?

I’m not a prude and I don’t mean to preach, but let’s not be stupid. You shouldn’t need free movie tickets to get the peace of mind that you won’t be infecting that random hook-up (no matter how big of a mistake) or, even worse, someone you care about.

Unless the movie tickets are for a free screening of Philadelphia. That was a good, educational movie. Maybe that’s the goal ASIAC had in mind?

And no, that wasn’t an HIV joke, because HIV isn’t funny.

Tags: ASIAC, HIV, Locust Walk, Philadelphia, Strictly Funk

This entry was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 3:00 pm and is filed under Penn, Philadelphia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.