Anonymous AIDS test site is possible

The University's HIV-AIDS task force is currently working to establish an anonymous test site on campus which could be opened to the University community "as soon as possible." The task force is currently working to find an agency that will pay for testing and to decide the best location for such a site, said Evelyn Wiener, task force services committee chairperson. Wiener, an associate director of clinical medicine at Student Health, and other task force members said an on-campus site should be accessible to the University community, assure users' anonymity, and have medical waste disposal and storage facilities. Student Health only offers confidential testing for the HIV virus which causes AIDS. For confidential testing, Student Health Director MarJeanne Collins said Student Health keeps a record of the patient's name and residence. Anonymous testing, offered at clinics downtown but currently not at the University, is a method of testing in which there is no record of the person's name maintained. Wiener said that most sites currently being looked into by the task force are located on the west side of campus. Associate Vice Provost for University Life Larry Moneta said that a "potential relation" with the Women's Anonymous Test Site in Philadelphia is being arranged, and that St. Mary's Church at 39th Street and Locust Walk is a possible location. Moneta said that any financial expenditure on the University's part would be "nominal," and that the site would be more of a "collaborative venture." "The University would provide the waste disposal, the Women's Anonymous Test Site would provide the testing, and [the site itself] would provide the facility," Moneta said yesterday, adding that the University is not "in a position to get involved in a major financial drain." Officials at St. Mary's, however, declined to comment beyond saying that "things are being negotiated." Wiener said she does not know when the site will open because logistical details with potential sites are still being worked out. Allen Orsi, chairperson of the Graduate and Professional Students' Assembly and member of the task force's services committee, said current problems include waste disposal. "That is probably going to be worked out," Orsi said. "They're trying to do it as quickly as possible." Student Health Educator Susan Vallari said that a concern of students with confidential testing is that there is a "paper trail" which could link a student to the test -- and be detrimental to that student -- in the eyes of future employers. During AIDS awareness week at the University last February, anonymous testing was offered at the Christian Association to interested members of the University community and more than 130 students showed up to be tested. Members of the task force said that the need for an anonymous test site on campus was a priority of the group in response to student, faculty and staff interest. "I think there's a pretty universal agreement that the confidential testing which is at Student Health is not sufficient," Assistant Director of Student Life Programs Bob Schoenberg said. Schoenberg, chairperson of the task force's committee on policy, said the test site would come through in the near future. "I have the sense that there's an intention that it will happen," Schoenberg said.

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