After campaigning last semester to bring free HIV testing to campus, a student activist and a Health Center official met Friday to discuss a campus testing program that could feasibly be implemented within weeks.Iyah Romm '07, a former coordinator of the Student Global Aids Campaign here, and Kathleen Maloney, health center administrator, picked up last semester's conversation together about on campus testing Friday.

Maloney agreed last spring to draft a proposal for campus HIV-testing after over 300 students registered for free and confidential tests. This testing was in large part thanks to SGAC's lobbying efforts to try and bring free and confidential testing on campus.

Maloney told the Justice last May that September would be a good target date for a completed draft proposal, and that it is about time for the University to begin investigating testing here.

"This is not an insignificant thing to do and if we're going to do this, I want to make sure that we do it right," she said in May.

Maloney said the proposal, which she and Romm had hoped to have already in place, experienced unforeseen setbacks, including a nursing shortage this summer that forced Maloney to put the initiative on hold.

Once the new academic year gets further underway, Maloney said she can dedicate her time to perfecting the testing guidelines, which she collected from an instructional course this summer.

"[HIV testing] is a priority," she said in an interview Thursday. "It's right on the top of things on my desk and as soon as I can finish up with what I'm doing."

Maloney, who has experience working with diseased patients, said there's more to the HIV testing-process than simply drawing blood. Before she starts testing students, she has to set up standard testing procedure.

"Obviously, people coming in for testing may be anxious," Maloney said. "You want to be open and accepting."

Maloney also said that personal questions need to be gathered "in a way that you remain open so people feel comfortable responding."

Maloney declined to provide a specific date for when testing could be available. But as one of the projects' leaders, Romm said once he reviews the testing procedure, the program could theoretically be implemented within weeks.

"This is an important program that is going to become part of an established health care practice" Maloney said. "This isn't done in isolation, so how do you incorporate that into an already established practice?"

The program, Maloney said, is "just too important not to do right. . It's a topic that deserves time and thought.