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College campuses around the nation will see major campaigns for World AIDS Day, reflecting growing student activism on the issue. The campaigns will be orchestrated by "Acting on AIDS" — a movement founded by three Seattle Pacific University students in 2003.

World Vision subsequently employed the students — Lisa Krohn, 23, James Pedrick, 23, and Jackie Yoshimura, 22 — with the aim of turning Acting on AIDS into a national movement.

The trio planned to start five new chapters by June this year, but overwhelming student interest bumped the number of new chapters to almost 40.

Kurt Rahn, Acting on AIDS organizer at Anderson University in Indiana, says it's no surprise the issue has caught students' imagination.

"When you see people dying in numbers close to the numbers who died in the holocaust, you can hardly wrap your mind around it. It's such an important issue," he said.

Kurt said Anderson will have something going on almost every night during the three weeks leading up to World AIDS Day on December 1. The program includes benefit dinners, speakers, and films.

Meanwhile Katrina Hein, President of Acting on AIDS at Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York, said activities on World AIDS Day would likely center on a "Lives are at Stake" campaign where up to 1,000 pictures of children from AIDS-devastated communities would be attached to small stakes in the ground. Students, faculty and staff would be encouraged to take a picture, hang it around their neck, attach it to a backpack, or use it as a starting point for prayer or discussion about AIDS with peers.

"Lives are at Stake" will also run at Seattle Pacific University. Event organizer Sarah Tiedeman said in addition residence halls would be encouraged to raise money to achieve specific goals, such as paying school fees for dozens of AIDS orphans.

Acting on AIDS co-founder Lisa Krohn said students would also be advocating for 10 percent of U.S. government global spending on AIDS to go to orphans and vulnerable children.

"Orphans are the ones that get left behind. They're the ones who don’t get taken care of. But we have a biblical mandate to ensure that they are," she said.