|
The
New People |
||
|
|
Activism flourishes on college campuses
By Kate Giammarise, Campus Correspondent
"We’re seeing a rise in student activism. It hasn’t been this
big since the ’70s," said Linda Wambaugh, the executive director of the Alliance
for Progressive Action/ Pittsburgh Jobs with Justice. Pittsburgh students are
involved in a wide range of issues — justice for campus workers, reforming the
criminal justice system and informing other students and community members about
the "War on Terrorism."
This semester, Pittsburgh students participated in an
activist training with members of the APA, traveled to Washington to demonstrate
against Plan Colombia and other aspects of U.S. foreign policy and formed an
inter-campus anti-war coalition. They’ve also been up to lots of other things on
their respective campuses. There’s much more student activism going on than one
article can include, but here’s a brief overview:
Pitt In early February, when proposed changes in the County Jail’s
budget could have effectively eliminated rehabilitation and computer job
training programs for inmates, students held an action outside the County
Courthouse. Student Neil Bhaerman also spoke in favor of keeping the programs at
the meeting of the Jail Oversight Board later that same day. The Board voted to
keep the programs.
This semester also saw a revival of activity on the issue of
health benefits for the partners of Pitt’s gay and lesbian employees.
Combining forces with Pitt’s Living Wage Campaign, students held an April 4
"Justice for Pitt Workers" rally as a part of the nationwide student-labor day
of action to demand Pitt pay its employees a Living Wage and give domestic
partnership health benefits. Other student groups participated in the rally, the
Campus Women’s Organization, Black Action Society and Rainbow Alliance. Several
Pitt workers also spoke at the rally, as well as a plaintiff in the health care
benefits case.
Additionally, students also demonstrated to protest Pitt’s
engineering program naming AK Steel-whose workers have been locked out since
September 1999- the employer of the year. Students also hosted a sustainable
development teach-in, a peace and justice concert and a teach-in on issues
surrounding the prison-industrial complex when activist Angela Davis visited
Pitt.
Carnegie Mellon
CMU students have been a major force in the Free Getu
coalition. Ethiopian immigrant Getu Berhanu Tewolde was arrested in early
February and charged with making terroristic threats by Pittsburgh police,
despite the fact that the FBI cleared him of any terrorism charges. He was
beaten by police, placed in solitary confinement and forced to take drugs
without being given a psychiatric exam. Students mobilized and formed a
coalition with other student organizations and the Thomas Merton Center. They
brought in psychiatric help, legal help from the ACLU and brought media
attention to the case. Getu is now out on bail, awaiting trial.
Additionally, Students in People for Worker’s Rights
succeeded in making their University adopt a Code of Workplace conduct, and
become a member of the Workers Rights Consortium. They are gearing up to work
toward a Living Wage for campus workers, hosting a teach-in that featured a film
about the Harvard Living Wage sit-in and workers and a student from Harvard
on-hand to talk.
Duquesne Marie Viggiano, a Duquesne student and head of the Amnesty International chapter there, describes Duquesne’s activism as on a somewhat smaller scale. One big event for the semester was the clothesline project, which involved displaying t-shirts made by women who were victims of violence. Duquesne students were also instrumental in bringing anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean to speak.
The New People
Table of Contents, May 2002
Return to the Thomas Merton Center Home Page