The Observer, March 9, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 20
Call to action encourages students to get involved, be active on campus
I am writing this piece as a call to action – an attempt to wake up all of you Case (or should I say CWRU?) kids out there who have been lying dormant in your residence halls, slumbering or chatting through your classes, partying it up on the weekend. I am looking for you because I have not seen you out and about other than at social gatherings and keggers. I am writing because you are moving about this campus without a connection to the pulse of our community and I have become deeply concerned. You should know that I am not alone in this concern; in fact, there is a whole community of students worried about the fate of this university and the types of issues and voices we promote and are interested in here.
Before I go any further, I should out myself as a member of the CWRU social justice and activist community. I have been in this community since I set foot on this campus, or at least since the student activities fair during my orientation week in August 2003, and I have seen the changes in it as my years here have progressed. There are many student groups that are part of this community and we are all suffering in terms of our membership and the numbers of students who attend our events.
We are suffering in terms of our abilities to put forth an alternative voice on this campus and in our abilities to raise awareness about so many important issues which most students never hear about because they are sheltered in the bubble of the university setting. We, the social justice and activist community, try to bring to our fellow students a sense of responsibility to people, from our own backyard to those around the globe who face injustice.
Over the years, however, a disappointing trend has spread, plaguing this community; people from various areas of social justice work have noticed this trend. Students at CWRU are less and less involved in the social justice setting, leaving groups to struggle to put together events with just a handful of planners, while events are not nearly as well attended as they were only a few short years ago. As a result, the vibrant voices that once splashed across the campus horizon are almost silent. By extension, one might assume that CWRU students have become less and less passionate about social justice and the well-being of our fellow humans.
However, I contend that this cannot possibly be true; CWRU students have not somehow become a group of people who are so selfish that they are uninvolved in the world. However, the question remains: what is keeping students from getting involved in activism and social justice issues in the numbers and with the passion that they once did, only a few short years ago?
Long gone are the days when the walkways were filled with political messages scrawled in chalk or the flyers that are plastered all over all of the buildings. In short, the activist community is quickly and quietly dying, and the process has only taken a few years – I would assert that this death began in the fall of 2004 and -here we are, in the spring of 2007, and it is almost too late to revive this important community.
However, the goals of these student groups and the voices that they provide must not be lost. It is essential that all of you interested and motivated students hiding out there get involved in the cause of your choice – before it is too late and all of these organizations have withered away. Look them up online or ask USG for their contact information – you have one last chance after spring break ends to get involved and to save this community from disappearing completely from our campus.
There are many student groups which address social justice on various fronts. From the Sierra Club to Catalyst: Students for Social Justice to the Student Global AIDS Campaign, there are a plethora of organizations to choose from. I am sure there are even more groups out there which I'm not aware of who are also in need of your help. Choose one, join it, and help make Case Western Reserve University a more interesting and compassionate place to live, to learn, and to grow.
