If an infallible nationwide test were done today, it would find that between three and four million Americans would test positive for the AIDS virus, according to Jeffrey S. Epperly, an educator at the Massachusetts AIDS Action Committee.

Of these, 21 percent would be between the ages of 20 and 29. Many members of this group would have contracted the disease in college, as it can take up to seven years for the disease's symptoms to become apparent.

In face of the AIDS epidemic, university administrators and educators across the country are struggling to convey the danger of the disease to college students.

Many schools have formed special task forces to deal with AIDS education. Others have made new policies to deal with victims of the disease.

But despite these efforts, the prevalent attitude about AIDS among heterosexual students is apathy or detachment, an attitude of, "It can't happen to me."

"There is concern, but it's on a very superficial level," says junior John A. Dabell, co-coordinator of the Peer Sexuality Outreach program at the University of California at Berkeley.

"I don't see too much of anyone being afraid of AIDS. It blows me away, because I'm terrified," says one member of the Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Alliance at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. "But most homosexual males are worried," says the student, who requested anonymity.

And although students may understand that AIDS can kill them, all too often they fail to take appropriate precautions to avoid contracting the disease.

"My impression from talking to students who discuss this kind of thing with me is that undergraduates are still very far from behaving in ways the medical community would see as safe," says Roger Lehecka, Dean of Students at Columbia. "We're moving in that direction, but we're still far from that," he says.

A survey done by a university-created AIDS task force at the UMass Amherst revealed that "most students know how to protect themselves from the virus but weren't doing it," says David Kraft, the school's executive director of health services.

"People have to start learning that they have to talk about sex, and make decisions before they do it instead of just falling into bed," says Tufts junior John E. Orcutt, co-coordinator of the university's Lesbian and Gay Community.

"[In college], the last thing on your mind is dying. There are too many baubles, bangles, and beads dangling in front of your eyes to worry about AIDS," Epperly says.

Changing Attitudes

Though students may be more apathetic than health care professionals would wish, both administrators and students say they think people are more concerned about AIDS now than a year or two ago.

"It's amazing how many students didn't start thinking about AIDS until Rock Hudson died," says Sandra Caron, health educator at Cornell.