Social Justice

  On February 2, the word “nigger” was found written on the room doors of two African-American students in a dorm on the Williams College campus. A campus-wide meeting was held a week later to address the incident and ran for almost four hours as student discussed respect, discrimination, accountability, and specific actions that should be taken to prevent further discriminatory events on campus. At the meeting, over 50 students signed a Pact Against Indifference and Hate, and have now formed a campaign called Stand With Us to promote diversity and acceptance on campus.

  Every year, tens of thousands of people converge on Ft. Benning, Georgia to protest the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the School of the Americas (SOA). The school, which trains South and Central American military and law enforcement personnel, has been under fire due to the… how should we say… rather alarming number of human rights abuses (including rape, torture, and murder) perpetrated by its graduates. For the students of America’s Jesuit colleges, the protests hold special significance, as many of the victims of the SOA alums were Jesui

  The Associated Students, International House, and Migrants’ Rights Awareness at the University of California San Diego held an educational event to raise awareness of ongoing tensions in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. According to a representative of the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (the self-declared, unofficial governing body of the people of the region), police presence has grown steadily since confrontations began last fall. 2/2707  Read Mor

  Students at Marquette have met with a member of their administration to discuss the possibility of the University joining the Designated Suppliers Program, in an effort to ensure that Marquette University clothing was not made under sweatshop conditions. Under the DSP program, the Workers Rights Consortium would monitor the apparel factories that Marquette contracts with. Several large universities, including Duke and Syracuse, have already signed on to the DSP (and, if you remember last semester’s hunger-striking Purdue students, that was this too). 2/1/07

  A student at Tufts University created a nonprofit organization, International Funds for Children's Computer Assistance, also known as Computers for Cambodia, after being moved by a visit to the country. Computers for Cambodia seeks to provide children with the knowledge to succeed in the tourism industry or service sector. A student at the University of Utah also started a group, Care for Cambodia, to help the poorest in the country become more self-sufficient. Iowa State students have the opportunity to combat malnutrition in the women and children of Uganda thanks to a partnership

By Jose Requena   A number of incidents on campuses across the country suggest that Muslim students are finding it harder to go about daily life. In these times of conflict, Muslim students are facing prejudices and legal loopholes in the pursuit of their education. Last semester, incidents ranged from notes full of religious and cultural slurs to—in perhaps the most extreme example of discriminatory vengeance—a U Mass Amherst student falsely accusing a Muslim student of terrorist plotting to the National Security Agency (NSA). This semester, Muslim students are experiencing trou

  The 100 students and community members who participated in a Take Back the Night march in the Mission Beach area of San Diego last week were met with cheers and encouragement from neighborhood residents. The march is part of an ongoing response to the rape of two University of San Diego students in the Mission Beach neighborhood in October.

12/7/06 Read More from the University of San Diego

In the wake of a ten-day hunger strike by Columbia students demanding changes to several academic programs and the proposed university expansion into a nearby neighborhood, the Columbia Spectator surveyed students to review student opinion on the striker’s tactic.  The Spectator found a campus divided both by the strikers’ demands and methods.