Social Justice

At the University of California-Berkeley a new program called The Bear Pantry will provide food to low income students with children. The program, aimed at helping student-parents when their financial aid is dispersed late, will distribute bins with two weeks worth of food to needy parents once a semester. The program was founded by UC Berkeley Senior Koret Mulder, a mother of two, and will be run out of the UC Berkeley Transfer, Re-Entry and Student Parent Center.   Mulder said this program will provide “a cushion and an opportunity. It takes care of the immediate crisis and enables st

On October 9th, a new federal law went into effect allowing college students with serious illnesses to take a one year leave of absence from college while still retaining health insurance coverage through their parents’ plan. Before the legislation, students could only stay on their parents’ plan if they took a full course load. The American Cancer Society estimated that the law would help 2,400 students who would be diagnosed with cancer in 2009, reported Fred Hintz in the “Daily Orange.”   The campaign for the law was led by New Hampshire residents AnnMarie and Glen Morse. Their da

Following a rally October 1st and a week of organized pressure from workers and students, Brown Dining Services workers at Brown University ratified a new three-year contract with the University on October 15th. The negotiations focused on health care premiums, wage increases, retirement benefits for new hires and the creation of more full-time positions. Students in Brown’s Student Labor Alliance, Students for a Democratic Society and Real Food at Brown teamed with Rhode Island Jobs with Justice and local unions to organize the rally that drew about 200 people. Prior to the contract’s O

The Portland State Model UN (PSUMUN), a two-year old group that simulates the United Nations, is working locally to promote single-payer health care end world poverty by 2015. The goals are part of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. PSUMUN fosters awareness and promotes action from students by bringing global issues to a local and accessible stadium. The group is fighting global poverty by organizing a “Stand Up and Take Action” event on October 17th. The event—created as a part of a large campaign by the ONE organization—will help MUN reach the UN’s millennium goals of eradicating p

North Dakota State University (NDSU), Minnesota State University at Moorhead and Concordia College students marched from their campuses to the Fargo Civic Center September 28th to condemn sexual violence in an event with the Take Back the Night Foundation. The foundation has run similar events internationally since 2001.   Each group gathered dozens of supporters to march through downtown Fargo as part of the international movement to stop violence against women, sexual abuse and harassment of all people. Event organizers read the names of Minnesotans and North Dakotans who lost thei

As the National Equality March in Washington D.C. grabbed headlines this past week, students at campuses across the country also held events celebrating National Coming Out Day.  New Mexico State University had representatives from the Sexual Gender Diversity Resource Center (SGDRC) and other campus organizations set up tables to share information about safe places for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans-gendered students to seek information about certain addictions and diseases LGBT students are more susceptible to.   “It’s a place for people to come and be themselves,” said SGDRC

For their October 9th Homecoming events, students at Colorado State University took time out of tailgating to devote themselves to “CANstruction,” the largest one-day food drive in northern Colorado. The event, sponsored by SLICE—Student Leadership, Involvement, and Community—had students build large works of art with cans of food. The event is part of the longer term Cans Around the Oval food drive, with proceeds going to the increasingly utilized Larimer County food bank. The event this year took place at CSU’s homecoming festival Friday. Students used donated canned food items to build “

This past Columbus Day, students at the University of New Mexico celebrated ‘Indigenous Day’ for the sixth time to confront the impact of colonialism and Western expansion on indigenous peoples. The student-run Native American Studies Indigenous Research Group is circulating a petition calling for the university to recognize October 12th as Indigenous Day instead of Columbus Day, said group member Dana Gillio. “[The event began] about six years ago, when the students from the Native American studies department just got sick of hearing about Columbus Day,” Gillio said. “Knowing about the