Posts with the tag Campus

San Jose State University Halts Blood Drives

Tanya Paperny — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:52:15 EST

San Jose State University's President put all campus blood drives on hold because of the policy that gay men can't donate blood. He says this violates the school's nondiscrimination policy.

The Ground Truth screening with CP and AU.

ODUMarc — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 08:13:25 EDT

On Monday, April 23, Campus Progress and American University will join forces on the AU campus to show the screening of "The Ground Truth," to highlight the true costs of the war in Iraq.

It's also supported by the United Methodist Chaplaincy.

The idea is that if we highlight the truths about the war in Iraq, and its cost and effects, more people would take a stand on the war. This is an effective way to raise conciousness about the war, as well as mobilize and motivate student activists to act and takea a standa against the war.

The "Wear Some Black" campaign was started by Emily Willard at American University. The idea behind that is to wear a button that says, "Wear Some Black Until the Troops Are Back," (or any sort of black at all) as a way to get the conversations moving and started about the deep wounds of war, its fiscal and human tolls.

A great deal of other schools have jumped on board with this, to include Old Dominion University. While the College Democrats here are the leaders in putting this together, some College Republicans members have also shown interest in making this a bi-partisan campaign.

The vision for this is to reach across party lines and work toward a dialogue and open-and-honest discussion about the Iraq war. It is my hope that every school in America will be on board with this campaign. If such anti-war sentiments change America's visions in the '60s, such changes are also possible now.

Anyhow, you're invited to this event. If you're interested in "Wear Some Black" campaign, we also need you.

The link to the facebook invitation is below. If you don't have facebook, shoot its organizer, Emily Willard, an e-mail at emily.willard@american.edu

Should I buy my textbooks or my birth control this semester?

ashwini — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 12:02:29 EDT

Don’t be surprised if, when going to your student health center this year, you find yourself digging deeper and deeper into your pockets to refill your oral contraceptive prescription. As the Associated Press reports, a change in a Medicaid rebate law (amended in a defecit reduction bill) has ended the incentive for drug companies to offer discounted pills to colleges. What does this mean for the average student? A prespcription that is twice, if not thrice as expensive. The cost increase even affects generic brands.

The AP article mentions students and health workers at schools like Indiana University and Kansas State, which a number of working class students who are often supporting themselves, or even their children, while studying. According to Hugh Jessup, executive director of the health center at IU, “It’s a tremendous problem for our students because not every student has a platinum card…Some of our students have two jobs, have children. To increase this by 100 percent or more overnight, which is what happened, is a huge shock to them and to their system.”

Obviously, this does not bode well for reducing unplanned pregnancies at college campuses. Also, as oral contraceptives can be used at times as emergency contraception, the ramifications for victims of sexual assault are also serious. But, I guess it’s what I’ve come to expect from the government’s continued attacks and erosion of Medicaid…

Out of the Picture

Josh Eidelson — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 01:23:58 EST

I think several generations of Yale activists have had the chance to gather in protest or at least reflect on the outrageousness of the university's top decision-making body gathering beneath a portrait of the university's namesake with a slave. Looks like the next generation will have to come up with a new rite of passage.

Yale is finally taking the goddamn thing down. But god forbid you should think that Yale's leaders feel regret about leaving it hanging there the past few decades:

Since the portrait is confusing without the explanation [that Elihu Yale did not own slaves], I have decided it would be prudent to exchange that portrait of Elihu to another one in the University’s collection,” Lorimer said.

The quote, from Yale's VP and Secretary, leaves you with the sense that Yale is taking down the portrait, which involves adjusting the moldings around the mantelpiece around the painting (the classic explanation of yesteryear for why the thing had to stay up), because it's easier than putting up a plaque explaining that the man was not a slave owner. But it's a portrait designed to honor Elihu Yale by painting a chained Black man at his feet. It honors him with the imagery of White supremacy - an ideology of which the colonial Governor and the university named for him have been no small beneficiaries.

It's a painting that belongs in a museum. It has no place hanging over Yale's president as he meets with the Yale Corporation to try to chart a course for the university. It never did. (That's the difference between engaging and exulting the problematic)

To suggest that the racist graphic is being taken down to avert misunderstanding is to make abundantly clear that you don't get it.