Carolinian

Issue date: 10/17/06 Section: Campus News

Media Credit: JERRY ARNOLD/THE CAROLINIAN Another campus activist group, The World Can't Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime (right) is affiliated with a national organization of the same name.

Media Credit: JERRY ARNOLD/THE CAROLINIAN Guest speakers and STAND members pass the torch during last week's candlelight vigil (above), ending the day-long Darfur Fast.

It is a common force that cannot be ignored on campus - whether it takes the form of protests against elected leaders or declarations against genocides in foreign countries, it's everywhere: student activism. The causes these groups undertake are ones of such immense scale that they are representative of hotly contested and debated issues in the United States and throughout the world.

UNCG boasts a number of student activist organizations dedicated to these gigantic world issues. Some have accused these groups of being unrealistic in their efforts. How important can a small group at a small southern university be in affecting such world encompassing topics? It also becomes a difficult factor to gauge success in these organizations.

Co-founders of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), the subject of last week's article, had difficulty in defining what made their organization effective or successful. They cited their ability to "plant ideas in peoples heads," but not really knowing if it was working.

Dr. Gregory McAvoy, a UNCG political science professor, says trying to measure the success of these organizations may become a difficult task. Success of these student activist organizations lies in small measures of progress: the ability to recruit new members, being able to keep membership up within the group over time, successful publicity of activities, and gaining media coverage. It also plays a factor that these groups are working in conjunction with a bigger effort spanning national borders.

And the student effort seems to be a growing movement.

"We have seen an increase in the number of new politically based student organizations in the past few years," says Larissa LaCour, Campus Activities Coordinator of UNC-Wilmington.

According to LaCour, one of the most interesting developments out of the Amnesty International chapter has been their affiliation with the Full Belly Project. The idea? Design a cost effective machine that can shell nuts that can be used by rural communities in developing countries, so they can take advantage of a nutritional food source. The average person could shell 2 pounds of nuts in an hour - this machine can in the same time produce 110 pounds.

Stories like this are exceptional, but LaCour cites that the majority of student activism efforts have been an attempt to educate and "bursting the academic bubble, and showing students that there is a higher level of awareness in terms of campus life."

That's essentially what these groups are trying to do.

"[Student groups] want you to think about the issue and do something about it," said McAvoy. Thinking and being educated on these various aspects of the world, which are easy for most to miss in the business of everyday life, will hopefully lead to action on an individual level. Sometimes these groups can directly affect the situation with actions to influence those in power.

But bigger, and possibly more importantly, these groups keep what's going on in the world in eyesight, exposing their peers and communities to thought-provoking questions. The experience of education is not simply found in a book, but in action outside of the walls of the classroom.



For more information about the Full Belly Project, visit www.fullbellyproject.com

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