When someone hears the word “free,” they get excited and anxious to grab whatever they can just for the sake of it.

However, students are often more unsure about utilizing the mobile HIV testing facility near the Health Center.

Students see the little bus as more of an obstacle to walk around right between the Health Center and the Art Building, rather than a tool used for the betterment of student health and life itself.

Coming from Willowbrook Hospital, formerly known as King/Drew Medical Center, the bus offers free HIV testing every last Tuesday of the month from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Sexually active students should take full advantage of this opportunity if they have any thought in their mind that they may have been exposed to HIV.

In fact, from April 2006 to Jan. 2008, there have been 8,910 reported cases of HIV in Los Angeles alone, making it California’s highest HIV-populated county.

Having HIV does not mean that one’s life is over, but knowledge is power. Getting tested is the difference between those with power and those without.