Social Justice

  Smith’s chapter of the Student Global AIDS Campaign, along with volunteers from Voices for Planned Parenthood on Campus (VOX) and Population Connection, held a series of AIDS awareness events that included a die-in (students lay in front of the campus center with their mouths taped and paper headstones in their laps). A variety of other educational events also took place.

12/7/06

  The hard lesson from Purdue this week? If ever you start an on-campus hunger strike, do so as far before a major holiday as possible. We have to admit we saw this possibility looming on the horizon, and (while he may be a good guy) it does seem like Purdue’s President Jischke escaped addressing the strikers’ issues by simply waiting for the hungry to be scattered by the winds of the holiday break. Tactical kudos, we say, but perhaps a little low? If you missed this, a group of Purdue students planned to stay on hunger strike until the President agreed to have all Purdue appar

  Back to da Roots, a new student group at the University of San Francisco, recently hosted an event called The Faces of Fair Trade to educate the USF community about fair trade practices and to demonstrate the vital connection between consumers and farmers. The group invited farmers from the Mirembe Kawomera cooperative in Uganda to talk about the fair trade system, and the positive impacts they have see in their own community as a direct result of fair trade practices. Because fair trade cuts out many of the middle men and puts profits back into the hands of farmers, who in turn inve

  A University of Maryland graduate student and member of the student group Feminism Without Borders was arrested at a protest last week. The group stormed the President of the University's office and presented the secretary with a letter urging the University to join the Designated Suppliers Program (DSP)—while dancing to Michael Jackson songs blaring from a boom box. “We already tried the rational way,” said a group member to the Diamondback, “So we feel like this is the only thing we can do now.” The DSP helps schools ensure that University apparel is made under fair labor

  “Victory over Violence” day at the University of California Santa Barbara spread awareness with a day of festivities, baked goods, and performances. This year’s theme was “Definitions of Self and Vagina”; the event was organized collaboratively by the UCSB Women’s Ensemble Theater Troupe, the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center, Student Health Sex and Relationship Interns, Take Back the Night, Planned Parenthood, and the Rape Prevention Education Program. The 2007 UCLA Lunafest film festival will open this week; its eight short films will focus on issues important to women, including br

  After a year of urging their administration to join the Workers Rights Consortium (an organization that campuses can join to ensure that their school apparel comes from factories monitored for human rights abuses) members of the Purdue Organization for Labor Equality  (P.O.L.E) have started a hunger strike. About 15 students are participating, at least 3 of whom enter their 12th day of fasting today. The Purdue President has scheduled a meeting with four members of the group on December 6th, by which time all four should be able to fit through the door at once. 11/28/06

  This week Pepperdine University is holding their second annual Eve Project week to celebrate Women’s History Month. The Eve Project is a photo and media campaign that asks students and administrators on campus to respond to the statement, “When fear of sexual violence ends, I will…” Project leaders plan to collect the photos and videos to create a mural for display on campus to spark discussion and raise awareness. Read more from Pepperdine University

    Student leaders from the nation’s top 100 schools active with the ONE campaign – an effort to combat global aids and extreme poverty - attended the ONE Campus Challenge Power 100 Summit in Washington D.C from January 2nd through 5th. Student leaders mingled with members from the World Bank, the World Health Organization, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.  They also heard speakers and attended question and answer sessions on relevant issues ranging from malaria to child health care.