A Day Without a Woman

The same people who brought about the massive and highly successful protests all over the world, The Women's March, have organized A Day Without a Woman to take place on International Women's Day, March 8th.

They are calling on women and their allies to "act together for equity, justice and the human rights of women and all gender-oppressed people, through a one-day demonstration of economic solidarity."

In order to support this action, do your best to commit to the following three actions:

  1. Women take the day off, from paid and unpaid labor

  2. Avoid shopping for one day (with exceptions for small, women- and minority-owned businesses).

  3. Wear RED in solidarity with A Day Without A Woman

For more information about A Day Without a Woman, visit this page to read their FAQs.

SPLC on Campus Introduces Four New Focus Areas!

           We at SPLC on Campus have seen a lot of amazing events put on by our clubs all over the country in the past couple of years, from film screenings and voter registration to protests and forums exploring complex issues. Though we encourage the students in our clubs to organize around the issues they care most about, in light of the current political climate as well as actions being held on college campuses everywhere, we offer these four focus areas for your consideration:

RACIAL JUSTICE
            Racial injustice has long been an issue in the United States. People of color often disproportionately face segregated and underfunded schools, the school-to-prison pipeline, and an unfair criminal justice system.
            The school-to-prison pipeline – unnecessary suspensions, expulsions and school-based arrests of children – is just one way that systemic racism pervades across the country and often cuts a child’s education short and increases the likelihood of incarceration. Additionally, the criminal justice system is one marred by vast racial disparities.
            College students are speaking out against racial bias in its many forms, from profiling by law enforcement to implicit and explicit bias in the classroom. They are also demanding that racist symbols be removed from their local communities and names of buildings and monuments that memorialize known racists be changed. At a time when the voices of white supremacists are being amplified and normalized, many students are speaking out and protesting hate speech on campus.

ECONOMIC JUSTICE
            Poor people in the United States are not only facing an economic gap – they’re facing a justice gap. Too often, they’re exploited and abused simply for being poor.
            They’re victimized by predatory lenders who trap them in a cycle of debt and rob them and their communities of resources. They’re denied access to the social safety net by politicians who stigmatize low-income workers and blame them for our country’s problems. They’re exploited and imprisoned by local governments that target impoverished communities for revenue-generating traffic fines – and by companies that seek to profit by charging fees for improper but court-ordered “services” like payment plans.
            Millennials and college students often face unique financial problems, and there has been a lot of organizing around issues such as affordable college tuition, the fight for a higher minimum wage, and the social safety net. Graduate student employees continue to fight for better pay and benefits, and students across the country speak out against income inequality.

IMMIGRANT JUSTICE
            Immigrants perform some of the hardest, most dangerous jobs in our economy – too often for the least amount of pay. Despite this, they’re routinely denied basic protections in the workplace. In their communities, they’re subjected to racial profiling and harassment by law enforcement, as well as being frequently forced to prove themselves innocent of immigration violations, regardless of their legal status. Their children, many of them U.S. citizens or longtime members of the community, are often denied school enrollment or the educational services.
            In response to the spread of racist and xenophobic rhetoric as well as the massive increase in deportations in recent years, many college students are standing up for the rights and dignity of immigrants. More and more colleges and cities have made headlines recently by standing out and declaring themselves sanctuaries so they may protect undocumented immigrants studying and living there.

LGBTQ RIGHTS
            Despite progress across the United States, it is still the case that the LGBTQ community in the South, the Midwest, and other areas continue to face significant barriers to equality.
            There are still many places in this country where employers can fire or refuse to hire people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBTQ people are also vulnerable to discrimination in public accommodations or housing, and the community is frequently victimized by violent hate crimes. In addition, LGBTQ youth often encounter harassment and bullying in school, and they typically make up a disproportionate percentage of homeless youth throughout the county.
            Though state legislatures all over the country have been pushing anti-trans legislation in recent years, students are working with a variety of progressive groups to defeat such bills. Further, students are often fighting against anti-LGBTQ discrimination in their communities and fighting for safe spaces on their campuses.

            These issues are very much a part of the work done by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and we encourage students to work together with each other and with other groups on campus to organize and be advocates for justice and equality for all.

This Week in the News: January 14-January 30

Here's what the SPLC on Campus team has been reading this week. Let us know what you've been reading! Submit articles to daniel.davis@splcenter.org.

Spring Semester Brings a New Coordinator and a New Campaign

Hello, everyone! My name is Daniel Davis. It's been a little over a month since I took over the role of Coordinator for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s college program, SPLC on Campus. Though the program is still relatively young, we have exciting plans for a new campaign, partnerships with other organizations, general expansion, and a focus on organizing student activists in the midst of the repeated normalization of the so-called Alt-Right and their actions held around the country.

Born in Montgomery, Alabama, I have seen firsthand what systemic oppression looks like and what it means to stand against such oppression in the pursuit of justice and equality. I spent several years in high school and college working at the SPLC’s Civil Rights Memorial Center, where there is a particular emphasis on educating the public about the martyrs of the Civil Rights Movement with the understanding that the march for justice continues.

In 2013, I graduated from Huntingdon College with a Bachelor’s in Religion, and I have studied abroad in Heidelberg, Germany, and at Yale Divinity School in New Haven to attain a Masters in the Arts of Religion.  Liberation theology was just one of the various subjects I studied throughout those years, but it has had a tremendous impact on the way I view social justice and privilege in American culture.

Last year’s SPLC on Campus campaign, #RegisterShowUpVote2016, inspired people both to help register new voters and get out the vote. Many new people were registered to vote by our club members, and the SPLC documentary, Selma: Bridge to the Ballot, educated people on the importance of voting and the amount of hard work it took to secure voting rights for many in the United States. I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce our newest campaign, #WhatDemocracyLooksLike.

Inspired by the well-known protest chant, #WhatDemocracyLooksLike is a response to the rampant racism, xenophobia, and other prejudices that have been increasingly pervading political discourse since the beginning of the 2016 Presidential Election. This campaign not only acknowledges the diversity of the electorate but also seeks to emphasize the importance of protest and activism as valid, necessary forms of political expression for progressives everywhere. In addition, SPLC on Campus will use this campaign to address voter suppression as an extreme threat to democracy in the United States.

We've seen the power of mass organizing in the Women’s March last weekend, and we've seen political campaigns and local movements driven by the passion of young activists and grassroots action. As an emboldened Alt-Right is already expanding their speaking tours and recruitment on college campuses, now is the time for us to rise up together to fight against hate and work together for the cause of justice. I look forward to being a part of this movement with you.

Additionally, if you are interested in starting an SPLC on Campus club at your college/university or wish to get involved in our latest campaign, feel free to register on our website or contact me at daniel.davis@splcenter.org.

This Week in the News: January 17-January 23

Here's what the SPLC on Campus team has been reading this week. Let us know what you've been reading! Submit articles to daniel.davis@splcenter.org.

This Week in the News: December 27-January 2

Happy New Year! Here's what the SPLC on Campus team has been reading this week. Let us know what you've been reading! Submit articles to daniel.davis@splcenter.org.

 

This Week in the News: December 20-26

Here's what the SPLC on Campus team has been reading this week. Let us know what you've been reading! Submit articles to daniel.davis@splcenter.org.

Undocumented students grapple with the uncertainty of a Trump presidency by Brianne Garrett, USA Today: http://college.usatoday.com/2016/12/21/undocumented-students-grapple-with-the-uncertainty-of-a-trump-presidency/

University stands by "Problem of Whiteness" course by Amanda Jackson, CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/23/health/college-course-white-controversy-irpt-trnd/

The environmental movement grapples with social justice in the age of Trump by Natasha Geiling, ThinkProgress: https://thinkprogress.org/the-environmental-movement-grapples-with-social-justice-in-the-age-of-trump-d0cb863c7996#.128xndpen

 

 

SPLC on Campus Welcomes Salve Regina University

Reposted from SRU Mosaic:

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a new club on campus with a focus on civil rights. It aims to make students aware of issues that are going on around the world and encourages them to take action and use their voice to make a change.

Topics of discussion range from election issues to police brutality. Skyla Hudson, the club’s president here on campus, says that their advisor, Dr. Laura O’Toole, thinks it is important to “Pop the Salve bubble.” In other words, students should think on a larger scale, not just in the Salve community.

Right now, they are focusing on a very important issue: the 2016 Presidential Election. At their meetings, they have been discussing the issues brought up in this election and fact checking claims made by candidates in an effort to, as Hudson says, “clarify their own beliefs and values.”

They are also stressing the importance of voter registration. “For a lot of people on college campuses, it’s their first time voting in such a big election,” says Hudson, “and that’s something that we want people to really value.”

SPLC has voter registration tables set up in Miley in partnership with SGA. The club is very new and small in comparison to others, so they decided to partner with other clubs in order to accomplish their goals.

This club is part of a larger national organization. Hudson says that she and others came up with the idea to bring this club to Salve after seeing the club in Birmingham, Alabama on a Civil Rights Bus Tour last spring break.

The process of beginning the club began that same spring and they were up and running by the start of this school year. The club has around fifteen members at the moment.

Members of Southern Poverty Law Center meet every other Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Students are encouraged to get involved by attending meetings, volunteering to work at voter registration tables, or the “United Not Divided” police brutality panel that will take place in November.

The e-board always welcomes students who want to learn more about the club. Hudson says, “I want to see it grow and strengthen, even once I graduate.”

SPLC on Campus @UWF Hosts Week-long #RegisterShowUpVote2016 events

On June 9, 2016 Dr. Lusharon Wiley and the committee for Spotlight Inclusion/SPLC on Campus began the planning for the fall and spring semester. We decided to take a different approach from the traditional speaker event and instead create weeklong events to register students and community members to vote. I was elated because, for me, there is no greater civic responsibility than to exercise the vote. 

We began our quest to register voters with the assistance of the Escambia county Supervisor of Elections office of and students from the Social Work department. We met in the Commons at the University of West Florida to begin the process of registering voters. I was excited to find many students stated they were already registered. Volunteers stopped students, approached them in the dining hall, and asked them if they were registered to vote. Many students had questions on how to vote, where to vote, and why they should vote. The first day of registration 31 students registered to vote!

Screening SPLC’s Doc on Voting Rights
Later that evening the Spotlight Inclusion/SPLC on Campus event welcomed several speakers, including Dr. Susan Jans-Thomas. She shared the extraordinary account of her recent walk to Montgomery on the anniversary of the Selma march. The night would not have been complete without viewing the moving and informative SPLC documentary “Selma: The Bridge to the Ballot.” The movie shared the enormous courage, and selflessness of young African American students who took it upon themselves to help secure the right to vote for so many. Our guest speaker Reverend H.K. Matthews, had a personal message that could not be ignored. Reverend Matthews account of Selma was personal, he stood on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to rally as a teen. I caught myself imaging the strength and courage he must have had, to deny the fear he must have had, when facing the armed police of Selma. I wondered for a moment, if I would have been able to do the same. The young men of 1965, such as Reverend Matthews, were in my mind all week as we registered voters. 

Each day that week, we met in the commons from eleven o’clock in the morning to one o’clock in the afternoon with different volunteers such as; the League Women Voters, Graduate Students from the Social Work department, UWF Professors such as Dr. Cotton, and Julie Patton, UWF staff such as Dawn Rocky and Rachel Blakesley and the most helpful Student Government Association.  The push to get students registered was a great success by the end of the week we had a total of 107 students registered! 

Each day of the drive I had in the back of my mind the enormous sacrifices so many have endured to secure the rights for voters in America. From the Nineteenth Amendment that secured the women’s right to vote to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Americans have fought hard to secure the right to have a voice in the way they are governed.  I look around at the news today and I see how voting rights are be challenged in some states with strict voter I.D. laws. It is most important that those who are registered to vote get out and vote on election day. I heard several times from students that they didn’t want to vote because they don’t like either candidate running for president. I quickly reminded them that the election includes many others running for office, as well as amendments to vote on. 

I want to say a special thank you, as none of this would be possible without the tireless efforts of Dr. Lusharon Wiley, our advisor. She inspires us to be more thoughtful, more genuine and of course more inclusive.

I want to end with this, do not squander your right to vote! Many have bled, and died for your right to vote and we should honor them by voting this November.  

Jane Montavon, MSW student and member of the Graduate Student Social Work Association, University of West Florida

 

Looking Forward to Another Year of Student Activism

After spending the summer interning here at the Southern Poverty Law Center one thing has become abundantly clear; this upcoming 2016-2017 school year has a huge opportunity to create meaningful change.

In November, we elect our new president and 88% of all congressional seats. We can vote for people who best represent our beliefs, and empower others to have their voices heard. You can do this by holding a voter registration drive, show the film “Selma Bridge to the Ballot” to educate the community on the importance of voting.  If you hold a voter registration drive, SPLC on Campus can provide follow up postcards to remind those you’ve registered to #ShowUpandVote. Check out our Facebook Live video we did over the summer for more voter registration tips! This November our #RegisterShowUpVote2016 campaign can and will be a huge success!

Other way college campuses have always made change is through activism. From writing to your local and federal representative on certain bills, to protesting injustice and hate, our voices as college students makes waves. Just this past year through student-led activism two college Chancellors who were found doing unethical practices resigned, and through nation-wide campus outrage college sexual assault has garnered National attention resulting in new policies. Not to mention one of the main issues presidential platforms are addressing is college-debt-that is because of college students using their voices. Our voices matter and people are listening!

Throughout this summer I researched other social-justice minded college clubs such as the Andrew Goodman Foundation, which focuses on voter registration, OxFam International, a club that addresses poverty and hunger, and Habitat for Humanity, which builds shelters for those in need, to name a few. It amazes how many college clubs are dedicated to standing up to injustice, and taking steps to work to counteract it. I am proud that SPLC on Campus joins these clubs in fighting for justice, and speaking out for equality.

As this school year starts I leave you with one of my favorite quotes, and hope that our hard work echoes the sentiment “There may be times when we are powerless to injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest”- Elie Wiesel

—Ariella Grozbard, SPLC on Campus Intern