SOUTHEAST TO INTEGRATE AIDS/HIV PROJECT INTO STUDIES

Southeast biology professor Dr. Christina Frazier has helped the university step up its HIV and AIDS education efforts.

With funding from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Frazier will integrate HIV/AIDS education into the University Studies program.

"The spread of HIV is a matter of human behavior," Frazier said. "As long as we're not taking responsibility for controlling our own behavior, we're allowing disease like HIV to spread. The long-term hope is to change the damage we're doing to the human population by changing our behavior."

Frazier's project is one of 10 funded of the 47 submitted to the AAC&U. The purpose of this initiative is for the AAC&U, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to assist in integrating HIV and AIDS educational material into curriculum to prevent and manage HIV disease.

Frazier's plans to develop units for University Studies courses, introducing courses on emerging infectious diseases and on literature and the biology of HIV/AIDS, creating an AIDS Web page for the University and constructing a resource library consisting of books, films, Internet addresses and article citations that relate to HIV/AIDS.

Frazier learned of the AAC&U's initiative while attending an AAC&U meeting. Her decision to submit a project stemmed from her educational background in epidemiology and virology. She also teaches immunology. She has been on the university's AIDS Task Force since its inception in 1985. She also has given AIDS prevention lectures locally and nationally since 1985 to schools, churches, civic clubs and medical groups.

Frazier came to Southeast in 1979. She earned a doctoral degree in infectious disease epidemiology and virology from Yale University. She obtained a bachelor of science degree in microbiology from Cornell University. She has published several articles and completed numerous presentations in relation to HIV and AIDS.