On Nov. 25, the Student Welfare Commission, one of the 13 Undergraduate Students Association Council offices, will host the annual World AIDS Day. Assistant News Editor JJ Yang sat down with Commissioner Jonathon Tsai to talk about the event and other health-related issues his office spearheads.
Daily Bruin: Can you explain in detail what World AIDS Day is?
Jonathon Tsai: Actually Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day, but we’re doing it on Nov. 25.
Dec. 1 is 10th week, and you can’t have amplified sound on Bruin Walk.
The AIDS Awareness Committee works with different groups on campus pertaining to AIDS to hold the event.
It’s going to start at different places, then converge at Bruin Plaza. There are going to be speakers, entertainment, and everyone will get a free T-shirt.
The event will inform the public about AIDS. As the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, we want to make it big. We’re trying to reach out to the various AIDS awareness groups on campus.
World AIDS Day is one of our bigger events in the fall quarter.
DB: The Student Welfare Commission deals specifically with student and community health-related issues. What are specific programming the commission deals with?
JT: Our commission is really big. There are 11 committees within Student Welfare Commission. I work along with the other executive board members (in the committees). All those committees deal with student and community health issues: some things such as CPR classes and also larger-scale events such as World AIDS Day, which brings awareness to issues in the whole community. We also do the Run/Walk at UCLA, a 5K run that benefits the Mattel Children’s Hospital.
During the winter quarter, we have RollAIDS. In RollAIDS, we convert Ackerman Grand Ballroom into a rolling skate ring. People dress up disco style and the event is packed.
Little do people realize that all the proceeds from the event go to One Heart Source.
DB: What made you run for this position?
JT: I feel like the Student Welfare Commission deals with a lot of diverse issues. As a commissioner, I feel like I impact the campus, the community and beyond.
I’ve always been interested in health issues. I feel like people, to be aware on health issues that are brushed under the table, there are a lot of things we don’t look at in terms of health issues.
DB: What are some of the health issues that are ignored?
JT: Like women’s health issues, possibly eating disorders and sexual health issues. The important thing is informing the campus and the community about what they can do to improve their health.
DB: One of your platforms when running for the position was a Bruin Health Network. What is it and how is it coming along?
JT: We’re in the process of working on it. Right now we’re working on technical issues such as the Web sites.
The program comes in two parts. One is to consolidate all the different health groups on campus so we can work effectively. We also want to make people more aware and inform people what’s going on with our commission and health-related issues in general.
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