The panels of color that encircle the Hughes-Trigg Student Center Commons this week are hard to miss or ignore; their message is even louder. These panels are portions of the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The quilt began with one 3-foot- 6-inch panel in San Francisco in 1987. The quilt is now constructed of over 47,000 panels. Each individual panel commemorates a life lost to AIDS. The entire quilt now memorializes over 90,000 victims of the virus.

The Names Project takes care of the quilt. It was founded in 1987. Its mission is “to preserve, care for and use the AIDS Memorial Quilt to foster healing, heighten awareness and inspire action in the struggle against HIV and AIDS,” according to their Web site.

The Diversity Action Team is hosting the quilt at SMU for HIV Awareness Week. The Diversity Action Team is a joint committee consisting of students and staff from Student Activities and Multicultural Student Affairs and Resident Life and Student Housing.

The Diversity Action Team has joined forces with the Women’s Center to plan the HIV Awareness Week in an attempt to bring more attention and understanding to the global epidemic.

“The Quilt commemorates those who have died and adds an emotional human element to the disease,” Ali Martin Scoufield, chair of the Diversity Action Team, and a leader in organizing HIV Awareness Week said. “The Quilt is something everyone should experience at least once in their life. It is both beautiful and heartbreaking.”

More than 40 million people worldwide live with AIDS. The AIDS Memorial Quilt can be seen on display in the Student Commons from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day this week until Friday. In addition, HIV testing will be available Wednesday for SMU students, faculty and staff in Hughes-Trigg Portico A from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“It was really moving today to speak with a woman who was visiting the quilt,” Scoufield said. “She had worked with a man who is commemorated on one of the four panels; they attended the same church. It was wonderful to hear about his life through her eyes.

“The Quilt is powerful in that way; it not only helps people remember those they have lost but it connects us all through those lives,” she said. “The Quilt is about love and hope and living every moment. I think it is a very positive and powerful message and I am honored to be a part of it.”