Most class projects are in the form of PowerPoints, oral presentations or a poster board with information glued to it.
But Rayne Faucheux did something more uncommon when she brought panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt to the University as part of an outreach project.”It’s just a big art project, basically, that is commemorating everyone who has lost their lives to AIDS,” she said.Faucheux, biology junior, said the quilt has more than 44,000 blocks and more than 300,000 names of people affected by AIDS have been recognized. The blocks contain anything families and friends want to add to their loved one’s square — from teddy bears to wedding rings. The entire quilt is too large to be displayed in one place, but the University has eight blocks on exhibition. The quilt will be on display until 4 p.m. today in the Student Union’s Cotillion Ballroom. Faucheux said the University is the only place the quilt is being displayed in Louisiana right now, and she planned the exhibition to coincide with World AIDS Day, which was Monday.”This whole thing is a remembrance memorial to everyone, and just spreading the word as far as AIDS is real, here, in the United States, in Baton Rouge,” she said.Faucheux is one of 14 students in an honors class focusing on AIDS and HIV. She said she became interested in the quilt when she did a small presentation on it earlier this semester. Then the class was assigned an outreach project to bring public awareness to AIDS. “And so I thought ‘How cool would it be to bring the display to LSU for everyone else to see?'” she said.Faucheux said it is important to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS at the University because Baton Rouge is No. 2 in the most AIDS cases in the nation.”Here there is still a stigma as far as the virus goes, but it still is a worldwide problem,” she said.Chantal San Miguel, art history and biology senior, is president of AIDS REACH at LSU, a student organization which helped sponsor the quilt exhibition.”My organization has been struggling on campus, trying to find routes to get AIDS awareness more out in the open here,” she said. “Some organizations have done a few things with it, but we haven’t had a huge effort yet, and I think this is a great way to start getting people involved.”Vincent LiCata, biological sciences professor, teaches the HIV/AIDS concentrated class, and he hopes the students will help spread the word about HIV and AIDS.”It’s just another way of really learning about the disease and HIV in general and figuring out how to help,” he said. “The outreach project is just kind of a little push towards the next step — graduating from learning about it to doing something about it.”Ashley Baudouin, mass communication senior, is also in the class and decided to participate by making a panel for the quilt.”I thought it would be a good counterpoint to Rayne’s project to actually make one and submit it,” she said. “So I’m going to do one on behalf of LSU students, alumni and Tiger fans who may have been affected by the virus, not necessarily in memory of one person.”
 
 
 
—- Contact Ellen Zielinski at [email protected]