(U-WIRE) CINCINNATI - Students in a freshman biology class recently conducted an annual survey about the sexual attitudes and behavior of University of Cincinnati students with regard to their awareness of AIDS.

"The purpose of the survey is AIDS awareness and to find students' attitudes about it. It is to get them to think and talk about AIDS and sex," said Ralph Meyer, distinguished teaching professor of biological sciences.

Meyer has been doing the random survey for eight years and has found that most of the statistics, such as that 79.5 percent of this year's 398 surveyed students are sexually active, have not changed much in those eight years.

The only aspect that has shown significant change, according to Meyer, is that the percentage of people using condoms has increased dramatically.

The idea of the survey came to Meyer when he saw an article published in the University of California Los Angeles's newspaper on a survey of the sexual attitudes of students.

According to Meyer, by engaging the freshman biology class, they are able to teach their peers about AIDS and the dangers of it.

"It's an awesome class," said Mallory Raber, a first-year undecided student and class member. "I just feel so educated and love that you really do get to become a peer teacher. I've actually shaken some fear about AIDS into my fellow students."

Ashley Wheeler, a first-year biopsychology student agrees.

"It is really a great idea because no one wants to talk about it," she said. "The survey really got me into educating my friends and the people around me. The real problem of the epidemic is silence. But now, we're becoming educated and ending that silence."

Wheeler also noted the surprising results in the survey about people telling their sexual partners if they had AIDS.

According to the survey, 15 percent of students said they would lie to their partner about whether they had AIDS if they were unsure themselves, and 20 percent would not disclose that they were HIV positive if they were sure.

"That really surprised me," Wheeler said. "Fifteen percent is 15 percent too many."

Another point that surprised the students in the class was that many people wanted to know what other students' answers to the survey questions were.

"I was most surprised at how many people asked me the results," said Raber. "It has really opened their eyes to reality."

- Meghan Goth

The class, which is normally taught during Winter Quarter to freshmen only, has no exams and is mainly focused on discussion activities such as debates, according to Meyer.

Wheeler enjoyed these discussion groups and what she was able to teach the students of UC from the discussions.

"When I moved to Cincinnati, I was so surprised that this place is so conservative," she said. "I think in a place that doesn't want to talk about this kind of thing, awareness is better than nothing. Since the survey is done by students you can relate to it more."

The class is designed to be mainly about awareness, Meyer said. For example, according to the survey 40.6 percent of students believe that AIDS is not a controllable, chronic disease. This seemingly wide held belief is not true, Meyer said.

"Since the mid 1990s when drugs for AIDS were available, HIV rates dropped considerably," he said. "The general perception now is that people who are HIV positive are okay because of the available drugs. The fact is that one-third can't take the drugs at all. There are so many side effects and the costs are just staggering."

The price of HIV drugs for one year, according to AIDS Update 2005 by Gerald J. Stine, is about $20,000.

"The prices are much higher than people could even believe," Wheeler said. "This class can help you to understand things like that and to spread that knowledge to other people."

Many of the students who took the class have told their families, and even complete strangers, about what they've learned, according to Raber.

Besides helping students to understand the AIDS epidemic, students in Meyer's class said they believe that it has helped to bridge a generation gap between themselves and their parents, and even grandparents.

"What people don't understand," said Wheeler, speaking of a man with full blown AIDS who gave a speech to their class, "is that people with AIDS are still people. You always think of people with AIDS as too weak to talk, and it's not like that. They are people, just like you and me."