On February 28th and 29th my student group will be hosting a conference titled Leadership: Advocacy & Organizing.  The event is a three hour training on Thursday, and a full day trip to our state capitol on Friday to practice our advocacy skills on Capitol Hill.  We will be advocating for HB 81, mandatory HPV vaccine for all girls aged 9, and SB 179, mandatory comprehensive sexuality education. 

Scheduled to speak at our event is Mimi Melles of Advocates For Youth, Rev. Tony Minor of Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedoms (SYRF), and Representative Kathleen Chandler.  The event is free to all Kent State students, we expect to be at capacity, our registration cap is 55 students. 

We have decided to forego traditional advertising in favor of listserv’s, Facebook, and contacting professors to encourage their students to attend.   

Our Open Forum on the HPV vaccine and Student Health Insurance went well.  An overwhelming majority of students in attendance favored the vaccine being covered by student health insurance.  Since the event the Director of University Health Services has not responded to my emails and phone calls.  This could be attributed to her prediction that students would not be in favor of the additional cost associated with additional coverage.  The final decision on the HPV vaccine and student health insurance will be made within the next two weeks.  For this reason my coalition hopes to publish numerous letters to the editor, and place numerous phone calls to the University Health Center.